v^"^*^^ 


Self  Unfoldment 


CLASS  LESSONS 

/.  How  to  Obtain  Poise  and  Power 

II.  How  to  Develop  One's  Own  Mediumship 

III.  How  to  Send  Thought  Messages 

IV.  How  to  Manage  the  Sub-Conscious  Mind 

V.  How  to  Heal  Ourselves  and  Others 


LECTURES 

VI.     The  Common  Origin  of  Religions 


VII.  Spiritualism  and  the  Poets 

VIII.  New  Thought,  Christian  Science  and  Spiritualism 

IX.  The  Practical  Value  of  a  Good  Memory 


B.  F.  AUSTIN,  A.  M.,  D.  D. 


The  Austin  Publishing  Company 
Los  Angeles,  California 


GIFT  OF 


SELF^UNFOLDMENT 

Class  Lessons  and 
Lectures 


B.  F /AUSTIN,  A.MLD.D. 

Author  of  "RationarMemory  Training,"  "Glimpses  of  the  Unseen," 

"Woman:  Her  Character,  Culture  and  Calling,"    "The 

Mystery  of  Ashton  Hall,"  "What  Converted 

Me  to  Spiritualism."  "Christianity 

and  Spirituulism,  Etc 


THE  AUSTIN  PUBLISHING  COMPANY, 

LOS  ANGELES,  CALIFORNIA 


Copyright  October,  1917 
By  B.  F.  AUSTIN 


FOREWORD 


For  sixteen  years  the  substance  of  the 
following  Lessons  and  Lectures  have  been 
given  to  my  Classes  in  all  the  leading  Cities 
from  New  York  to  San  Francisco  and  at 
many  Camps  and  Chautauquas.  There  have 
been  so  many  requests  for  their  publication 
in  book  form  that  I  send  out  this  first 
series  of  them  with  Greetings  to  my  many 
thousands  of  students  and  a  fervent  Prayer 
that  they  may  prove  helpful  in  the  work 
of  Self  Unfoldment. 

B.  F.  AUSTIN 


43325 


HOW  TO  OBTAIN  POISE  AND  POWER 

CHAPTER  I 

Everyone  has  noted  the  difference  between  a  machine 
properly  balanced,  accurately  adjusted  and  well  oiled  and 
frictionless  in  its  working  and  one  loosely  fitted,  poorly 
lubricated,  creaking,  groaning  and  wearing  itself  out  in 
its  attempted  service.  Some  lives  seem  frictionless, 
harmonious,  effective ;  and  other  people  in  their  attempts 
at  living  wear  themselves  out — body  and  mind — and  ac- 
complish little.  Some  lives  are  a  constant  song  and 
some  a  constant  discord.  Why? 

What  a  difference  between  the  planet  rolling  forward 
majestically  in  its  own  orbit,  fulfilling  its  divine  mis- 
sion, and  singing  the  praises  of  its  Maker,  and  the  erratic 
shooting  star.  How  beautifully  the  poised  bird  soars 
above  our  heads  on  extended  pinions  and  how  painful  the 
efforts  of  the  bird  with  broken  wing.  The  airship  under 
perfect  control  is  a  thing  of  beauty,  but  unbalanced,  dis- 
abled and  crashing  to  earth  it  becomes  a  painful  vision. 

Pass  a  needle  through  an  orange  some  distance  from 
the  center  and  holding  the  ends  of  the  needle  cause  it  to 
revolve  and  you  get  an  irregular,  wobbling  motion.  Pass 
the  needle  through  the  center  and  set  it  revolving  and 
you  have  poise  and  grace  and  beauty  in  every  revolution. 

So  with  the  poised  and  unpoised  characters  of  men. 
Multitudes  have  never  learned  how  to  harmonize  their 
powers.  They  have  not  come  into  self-realization.  They 
have  not  come  to  the  greatest  discovery  of  life — the  find- 
ing of  one's  Self.  They  have  not  found  their  centre. 
They  are  building  in  thought  and  labor  around  a  false 
centre — and  can  never  know  peace,  harmony,  poise  and 
power  until  they  find  themselves  and  make  their  think- 
ing and  life  activities  revolve  around  their  real  selves. 

Man  must  find  his  centre  and  his  orbit  before  he  conies 
into  Peace,  Poise  and  Power.  The  multitude  go  wobbling 
through  life — erratic,  uncertain,  undependable.  The  few 


have  -found  themselves  and  life's  true  mission  and  are 
stsa<ty  it?  tlieir'  orbit  as  the  planets  in  their  course.  They 
shine  and  sing  and  attract  the  admiration  of  men,  and 
God  and  His  angels  can  always  find  them  and  depend 
upon  them.  Strength  and  power  and  beauty  of  Char- 
acter belong  to  men  and  women  who  are  poised  and 
moving  on  in  their  own  life  orbit. 

Multitudes  try  to  build  their  life  activities  with  the 
body  as  a  centre.  Like  the  savage  and  the  animal  they 
regard  the  body  as  the  important  thing  in  life  and  bend 
all  their  labors  to  gratification  of  the  senses  and  appe- 
tites. This  gives  a  form  of  enjoyment  to  their  lives  for 
a  time — but  only  a  lower  form  of  gratification  and  a  very 
temporary  one. 

As  soon  as  the  intellectual  nature  within  them  awak- 
ens it  begins  to  cry  out  for  something  akin  to  itself — 
for  truth,  beauty  and  a  philosophy  of  life,  for  some 
knowledge  of  life's  mystery  and  its  mission,  and  refuses 
to  find  in  bodily  pleasure  any  answer  to  that  divine  urge 
and  hunger  for  truth  that  has  become  awakened.  The 
more  the  intellectual  is  unfolded  the  less  satisfactory  is 
the  life  that  centres  its  desires  and  activities  in  the 
body.  And  as  the  intelligence  is  predestined  to  enlarge 
and  assert  itself  more  and  more,  the  life  centered  in  the 
body  becomes  of  necessity,  less  and  less  satisfactory  and 
hence  the  centre  around  which  it  revolves  must  change. 
Passion  and  appetite  change  and  the  intellect  from  its 
very  nature  cannot  always  be  subject  to  the  body  but  is 
destined  sooner  or  later  to  rule  it. 

Many  seek  to  make  reason  and  the  intellectual  nature 
the  centre  around  which  their  lives  are  to  revolve.  It 
must  be  admitted  that  this  is  far  in  advance  of  the  sen- 
sual life — a  higher  life — and  nearer  to  the  real  centre  of 
human  nature,  and  nearer  to  attainment  of  Poise  and 
Power.  And  many — among  them  some  New  Thought 
teachers  and  writers — regard  the  mind  as  the  true  cen- 
tre, the  real  man.  So  we  have  the  teaching:  "the  mind 
is  the  man";  we  have  "mind  healing"  advocated;  we 
have  a  "mental  science"  which  professes  to  cover  all  the 
contents  of  the  human  ego. 

There  is  a  mental  science  and  the  mind  can  and  does 
contribute  its  factor  in  all  disease  and  healing,  and  it  is 


almost  impossible  to  overestimate  the  great  importance 
of  right  mental  conditions  and  of  right  thinking.  Yet  as 
a  matter  of  fact  the  intellect  is  not  the  centre  of  our 
being — the  mind  is  not  the  man,  and  mental  healing  in 
and  of  itself  is  not  a  perfect  and  permanent  healing.  The 
mind  is  a  faculty  of  the  soul — an  organ,  an  instrument 
put  forth  by  the  ego  for  contacting  the  physical  realm 
and  for  guidance  in  our  relations  with  nature. 

To  make  the  mind  synonymous  with  the  man  is  a  con- 
fusion of  terms.  To  attempt  to  find  in  Reason  a  perma- 
nent centre  for  life's  activities  is  to  build  upon  an  ever- 
changing  foundation.  To  regard  Mind  as  the  sole  avenue 
of  knowledge  is  a  philosophical  blunder. 

Reason  with  all  its  acquired  stores  of  knowledge  and 
its  illuminating  power  is,  after  all,  only  a  tiny  taper  on 
the  great  ocean  of  life,  and  its  teachings  are  uncertain 
and  vary  with  every  stage  of  intellectual  growth.  It  pos- 
sesses in  its  waking  consciousness  only  a  few  of  the  mil- 
lions of  human  experiences — most  of  our  memories  be- 
ing hidden  in  the  sub-conscious.  Its  judgments  and  dic- 
tates, therefore,  being  based  on  faulty  logic,  imperfect 
data  and  misinterpreted  phenomena  and  life  experiences, 
are  at  best  uncertain  and  variable. 

Hence  Reason — the  much  boasted  guide  of  humanity — 
has  never  been  a  perfect  guide  but  has  constantly  been 
compelled  to  change  its  teachings  as  humanity  pro- 
gressed. The  Creeds  of  the  past  are  useless  rubbish  in 
the  museum  of  theological  curiosities  today.  The  Creeds 
of  today  will  likewise  go  into  deserved  oblivion.  "Knowl- 
edge passeth  away." 

Much  of  the  knowledge  of  past  ages  is  useless  intel- 
lectual lumber  today.  Much  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
earth  life  will  be  useless  to  us  hereafter.  So  the  mind, 
reason  and  so-called  knowledge  cannot  furnish  us  a  true 
centre  for  life's  activities. 

For  first  as  the  intellectual — in  nature's  order — is  to 
supersede  the  animal  stage  of  human  existence,  so  in 
order  the  spiritual  nature  of  man  is  to  evolve  and  become 
and  remain  the  true  centre  around  which  life  and  labor 
and  character  building  must  evolve  if  Peace  and  Poise 
and  Power  are  to  come  into  human  life.  Yet  let  us  not 
for  one  moment  unduly  depreciate  the  mind  or  the  great 


value  of  knowledge.  Knowledge  is  unspeakably  valuable 
— not  as  a  permanent  centre  for  man's  activities — but 
for  its  stimulating  effect  on  human  Desire.  Every  fact 
gained,  every  bit  of  reasoning  put  forth,  every  new  ex- 
perience in  life,  tends  to  the  awakening  of  Desire.  And 
Desire  is  the  wind  that  fills  life's  sails  and  wafts  us  on. 
Blessed  is  the  man  or  woman  of  Desire — for  it  shall  be 
gratified.  It  is  a  certain  prophecy  in  the  human  soul, 
sure  to  be  fulfilled.  "We  build  our  futures  by  the  shape 
of  our  desires."  Hence  the  great  value  of  knowledge 
and  reasoning — in  awakening  the  soul  to  spiritual  hun- 
ger. Spiritual  hunger  is  the  standard  of  progress. 

It  is  the  soul's  attitude  that  counts — not  its  present 
attainments.  Give  me  the  man  at  the  base  of  the  moun- 
tain whose  face  is  turned  upward  toward  the  summit 
and  the  light  of  day — rather  than  the  man  near  the 
summit  whose  face  is  toward  the  valley. 

Man's  spiritual  being,  with  its  psychic  senses,  and  de- 
veloped spirituality,  is  his  real  self  and  true  centre. 

The  first  thing  for  the  student  to  do,  the  fundamental 
necessity  of  every  life,  is  the  finding  of  one's  self.  This 
is  the  most  eventful  happening  in  one's  career  between 
the  cradle  and  the  grave — the  finding  of  your  real  centre. 

Until  you  have  accomplished  this  the  highest  progress 
is  impossible. 

HOW  SHALL  WE  FIND  OURSELVES? 

Climb  up  in  thought,  desire,  purpose  above  the  dust. 
Learn  to  see  the  distinction  between  the  passing,  the 
phenomenal,  the  transitory  things  of  the  material  and 
the  real,  abiding  things  of  the  spirit.  Set  your  affec- 
tions on  things  above.  Rise  above  the  plane  of  selfish- 
ness into  the  heights  of  altruism.  Say  with  the  Brah- 
mans : — 

"It  is  not  blessedness  to  know  that  thou  thyself  art  blest ; 

True  joy  was  never  yet  by  one,  not  yet  by  two  possesst ; 

Not  to  many  is  it  given,  but  only  to  the  all ; 

The  joy  that  leaves  one  soul  unblest,  would  be  for  mine 
too  small; 

And  he  that  has  this  ardent  hope  will  strive  with  earn- 
est soul, 

8 


To  work  out  his  own  proper  good  by  working  for  the 
whole." 

Realize  the  great  truth  that  only  by  unselfish  devo- 
tion to  the  common  good  can  you  rise  into  the  Christ 
life. 

Learn  to  recognize  each  man — no  matter  what  his 
station  or  character — as  a  brother  and  each  woman  as 
a  sister. 

"Roll  the  stone  of  self  away,  and  let  the  Christ 
within  thee  rise." 

Go  into  the  Solitude  and  the  Silence  and  get  face  to 
face  with  your  own  soul.  Enter  into  the  "Secret  Place 
of  the  Most  High"  and  Meditate,  Pray  and  Resolve  to 
reach  the  heights.  Then  begin  and  build  by  thought, 
labor  and  sacrifice  around  thy  real  Self,  the  Spiritual. 

ADVANTAGES  OF  POISE. 

To  the  man  whose  powers  are  harmonized  and  whose 
character  is  poised,  come  all  the  blessings  promised  to 
"him  that  overcometh."  The  man  who  rules  and  regu- 
lates with  wisdom  himself  and  brings  his  life  into  "tune 
with  the  Infinite"  overcomes  not  only  the  lower  nature 
within  him  but  becomes  victor  over  the  world.  As  man's 
nature  is  a  microcism — representing  the  material,  the 
intellectual  and  the  spiritual  universe — overcoming  self 
is  in  reality  overcoming  the  world. 

Conquering  self  he  comes  into  a  recognition  of  himself 
as  spirit — and  thus  comes  into  the  knowledge  of  God  and 
of  his  union  with  God  and  so  naturally  comes  to  recog- 
nize all  the  attributes  of  God  as  existing  in  himself  and 
begins  to  sense  his  heirship  to  all  Power,  Wisdom,  Truth, 
Beauty  and  Goodness.  Possessing  all  these  attributes  he 
feels  himself  divinely  sufficient  for  all  life's  endeavors, 
divinely  guarded  and  in  a  silent  partnership  with  God, 
angels  and  men  for  Righteousness  and  Truth.  Hence 
comes  unto  his  nature  thus  purified  and  elevated,  by 
natural  inflow,  unflinching  courage,  unwavering  faith, 
unfaltering  trust,  and  an  invincible  power.  The  nature 
being  harmonized  God's  peace  abides  within  and  ex- 
presses itself  in  every  act  and  word  and  in  his  coun- 


tenance.  He  has  reached  a  state  of  Poise,  and  by  divine 
ordination  Power  accompanies  Poise,  he  becomes  mighty 
and  his  life  effective  for  good.  The  silent  eloquence  of 
his  character  and  the  charm  of  its  expression  in  life 
appeals  to  all  human  hearts,  but  especially  to  those 
whose  good  opinion  is  worth  having. 

Nothing  can  move  him  from  his  fixed  orbit  or  disturb 
more  than  the  surface  waters  of  his  being.  Like  the 
ocean  rock  he  stands  with  the  breaking  waves  dashing 
against  him  into  harmless  spray. 

As  Jesus  stood  before  Pilate — giving  the  most  elo- 
quent example  of  perfect  poise  in  human  history — so  he 
stands  amid  attack  and  persecution  from  his  foes. 

Falsely  accused,  malignantly  hated,  most  foully  slan- 
dered, with  his  blessed  life  work  apparently  destroyed, 
Jesus  stood  silent  amidst  the  Babel  voices  of  an  infuri- 
ated mob — silent  when  Pilate  in  royal  robe  and  surround- 
ings questioned  him — majestically  silent  when  most  men 
would  have  denied  with  bitter  indignation  the  false  ac- 
cusations— silent  when  most  men  would  have  pleaded 
extenuation — silent  when  he  might  have  sought  Mercy — 
poised,  serene,  peaceful,  triumphant  and  silent,  waiting 
the  judgment  of  the  centuries. 

So  the  poised  man  who  is  like  Jesus  also  a  Soldier  of 
Truth,  a  Warrior  for  Righteousness,  stands  unmoved 
amidst  the  storms  of  human  hate  and  passion,  realizing 
in  himself  Victory. 

Every  one  who  possesses  this  self-Mastery  and  Poise 
wins  the  silent  admiration  of  the  world — especially  of  all 
whose  minds  are  open  to  perceive  truth  and  beauty. 

Admiration  is  the  first  step  toward  Worship  and  Wor- 
ship implies  imitation  either  conscious  or  unconscious. 

So  men  become  like  the  Gods  they  worship  and  men 
imitate  those  they  have  learned  to  admire.  Silently  it 
may  be,  but  most  surely  if  you  attain  this  Conquest  of 
Self,  this  mental  and  spiritual  harmony,  this  Poise,  you 
must  win  the  respect  and  compel  the  admiration  of  all 
who  have  learned  to  value  truth  and  beauty.  And  just 
as  surely  your  unconscious  influence  will  become  a 
mighty  wave  of  effective  uplift  for  good  in  the  lives 
of  men. 

10 


HOW  TO  DEVELOP  ONE'S  OWN 
MEDIUMSHIP 

CHAPTER  II 

IS  MEDIUMSHIP  NATURAL  OR  ARTIFICIAL? 

There  are  not  a  few  among  our  authors,  teachers  and 
psychologists  today  who  unsparingly  denounce  all  medi- 
umship as  a  perversion  of  nature  and  something  in- 
variably inimical  to  its  possessor.  They  assert  that  it 
weakens  the  will  power  and  the  personality  of  its  sub- 
ject, deranges  the  nervous  system,  leads  to  obsession 
and  subversion  of  the  moral  sense  and  is  ever  and 
always  to  be  avoided. 

The  answer  to  these  asesrtions  is  found  in  the  fact 
that  mediumship  has  been  found  among  all  nations,  civ- 
ilized and  uncultured, — that  it  develops  often  in  children 
— that  it  comes  to  many  who  are  ignorant  of  its  laws 
and  manifestations  and  utterly  averse  to  all  spiritualistic 
teaching — and  that  from  consensus  of  opinion  among 
students  of  humanity  it  now  appears  the  race  is  grow- 
ing sensitive,  which  is  another  name  for  mediumistic. 
To  charge,  therefore,  all  these  evils  on  Mediumship 
seems  like  finding  fault  with  nature  and  that  Supreme 
intelligence  that  manifests  in  Nature. 

Surely  there  must  be  a  legitimate  function  and  use 
for  what  is  evidently  an  inherent  part  of  developed  hu- 
manity. 

WHY  IS  MEDIUMSHIP  DENOUNCED? 

Because  its  critics  have  judged  it  by  its  abuse  and  not 
by  its  proper  use.  There  is  much — it  must  be  admitted 
— about  that  coarse  and  crude  phase  of  mediumship 
which  seeks  the  lime-light  and  flaunts  itself  in  the  face 
of  an  offended  public,  to  excite  both  disgust  and  derision. 

11 


The  best  mediumship  does  not  cry  aloud  in  the  market 
place,  advertise  in  the  public  prints,  make  extravagant 
promises  of  worldly  gain,  or  promise  miracles  and  prodi- 
gies. It  hides  itself  from  public  gaze — it  ministers  in 
the  privacy  and  sanctity  of  the  home  circle — it  serves 
oft  without  any  reward,  bringing  light,  joy,  comfort  and 
inspiration  wherever  it  manifests.  Its  mission  is  spir- 
itual and  divine  and  it  is  appreciated  by  the  favored  few 
who  enjoy  its  ministrations  of  helpfulness. 

IS  FULL  CONTROL  ADVISABLE? 

Among  those  who  know  the  truth  of  genuine  medium- 
ship  and  appreciate  the  blessings  of  it,  there  is  a  diver- 
sion of  opinion  as  to  whether  what  is  known  as  "full 
control" — that  is  the  absolute  domination  by  a  discarnate 
intelligence — is  advisable  or  not.  Many  mediums  admit 
the  value  of  the  inspiration  and  help  given  by  spirit 
guides  but  shrink  before  full  control.  They  believe  like 
the  late  Bro.  Colville  in  a  co-operation  between  the  mor- 
tal and  the  spirit  agencies  and  that  in  this  way  there  is 
an  enjoyment  of  nearly  every  advantage  which  medium- 
ship  imparts  and  a  minimum  of  disadvantage  and  dan- 
gers. 

Some  teachers  in  the  mortal  and  some  from  the  spirit 
side  assert  that  "full  control"  is  dangerous  and  often 
weakens  the  will  power,  and  opens  a  path  to  obsession. 
And  they  point  to  a  large  number  of  mediums  who  have 
yielded  to  full  control  and  have  lost  health,  happiness 
and  moral  principle. 

Of  one  thing  the  public  may  be  assured:  It  is  ex- 
tremely dangerous  to  rush  into  mediumistic  development 
without  knowledge  of  the  laws  that  govern  it — and  a 
Personal  Preparation,  intellectual,  moral  and  spiritual, 
for  the  exercise  of  its  lofty  functions. 

Some  years  ago  in  Plymouth  Church,  Rochester,  we 
had  a  class  for  several  years  studying  this  topic,  Medi- 
umship. We  reached  certain  general  conclusions  and 
the  membership  of  that  class  seemed  dominated  by  a 
desire  for  the  better  understanding  of  this  very  impor- 
tant theme.  During  this  period  we  were  visited  by  a 
gentleman  from  a  distant  city  who  joined  in  our  discus- 

12 


sions  and  seemed  very  well  qualified,  indeed,  to  give  us 
needed  instruction.  We  were  curious  to  know  the  source 
of  his  teaching  but  he  told  us  very  little  of  himself  and 
of  the  origin  of  the  lessons  he  gave  us,  merely  claiming 
he  was  "One  of  the  Brotherhood."  At  our  request  he 
wrote  us  a  Summary  of  his  teachings  which  I  published 
in  "Reason,"  and  which  I  give  here  as 

THE  BEST  PREPARATION  FOR  MEDIUMSHIP. 
Hints  to  Those  Seeking  Mediumship 

First,  seriously  ask  yourself  this  question:  Why  do  I 
desire  to  become  a  medium? 

Take  no  equivocal  answer.  Unless  you  can  honestly 
say,  I  wish  to  become  a  medium  that  I  may  be  able  to, 
unselfishly,  do  the  utmost  possible  good  for  humanity, 
let  it  alone.  No  other  object  is  worth  the  trouble.  Know 
this.  Attainment  of  ocult  powers  for  an  unworthy  or 
selfish  motive  may  lead  to  ages  of  terrible  suffering. 
Those  who  have  ears  to  hear  let  them  hear.  This  is  no 
child-play.  As  you  sow  so  must  you  reap.  If  you  de- 
cide you  do  desire  to  develop  yourself  solely  to  benefit 
your  fellow  men  then  keep  that  one  object  in  view  and 
develop 

First — Single-Mindedness 

If  thine  eye  be  single  (to  thy  good)  thy  whole  being 
will  be  full  of  light.  Know,  that  through  the  flashes  of 
colors  in  your  aura,  you  invite  or  attract  influences  like 
to  your  own  conditions  of  mind,  consequently,  (if  your 
whole  attention  is  fixed  upon  the  one  object,  that  of 
benefitting  humanity)  you  will  much  sooner  attract 
those  influences  that  are  unselfish  and  beneficial  than 
you  otherwise  would  do.  Do  all  you  can  in  sending  out 
thoughts  of  health,  joy,  love,  wisdom  and  peace  to  those 
you  know  who  need  help.  No  effort  of  this  kind  is  ever 
wasted  and  this  very  trying  to  help,  without  selfish  mo- 
tive and  also  without  letting  anyone  know  of  your  ef- 
forts, will  surely  bring  you  a  long  way  on  your  path  to 
attainment.  Do  not  think  for  a  moment  that  you  are 
fit  to  become  the  agent  of  the  higher  forces  until  you 
have  learned  to  control  yourself.  If  you  cannot  control 

13 


yourself  then  surely  will  you  attract  influences  to  your- 
self that  will  be  very  undesirable.  For  instance,  the  red 
flashes  on  black  background  of  your  aura,  caused  by 
anger,  will  immediately  bring  an  influence  like  to  itself 
and  many  murders  have  been  caused  by  thus  doubling 
the  angry  impulse. 
Develop  in  yourself 

Second— Self-Control 

Learn  to  overcome  evil  with  good.  As  soon  as  you  be- 
gin to  vibrate  with  anger  calm  yourself  with  thoughts 
of  love  and  peace.  Say  to  yourself  I  am  not  angry,  I  am 
filled  with  love  and  peace.  If  I  were  in  that  person's 
place,  with  his  disposition  and  environment,  I  would  have 
done  just  as  he  did.  I  have  nothing  to  make  me  angry 
but  myself.  I  am  perfectly  loving  and  free. 

What  I  have  said  in  regard  to  anger  also  applies  to  all 
other  of  the  lower  passions  and  appetites.  No  one  is  fit 
to  be  a  medium  until  he  has  learned  to  govern  himself — 
until  he  is  perfect  master  over  his  own  lower  nature, 
especially  his  sex  nature,  for  there  are  very  many  temp- 
tations that  may  be  brought  to  bear  upon  him  and  there 
is  no  safety  for  one  who  has  not  learned  to  be  steadfast 
in  his  moral  conduct  and  thought.  Self-control  brings 
to  us 

Third— Calmness! 

Learn  to  be  free  from  worry  and  anxiety.  Learn  to 
overcome  depression.  If  you  are  full  of  anxious  and  de- 
pressing thought  you  will  be  sure  to  attract  that  kind  of 
an  influence.  What  you  want  is  the  higher  forces  which 
always  make  for  peace  and  joy  for  these  are  the  quali- 
ties by  which  to  uplift  the  sorrowing  and  disquieted 
dwellers  on  earth.  By  all  means  develop  calmness.  Now 
as  no  message  is  of  any  account  unless  it  is  trustworthy 
or  true  and  as  we  attract  influences  to  us  like  to  our 
own  states  of  mind,  develop 

Fourth — Truthfulness 

This  is  one  of  the  most  important  of  all  the  different 
qualities  which  should  go  to  make  up  the  true  medium's 
nature.  If  the  medium  is  not  truthful  himself  he  will 

14 


surely  be  deceived.  No  message  can  be  trusted  that  does 
not  come  through  a  perfectly  honest  medium.  Even  then, 
if  the  one  to  whom  the  message  is  addressed  is  not  hon- 
est and  earnest  he  might  be  deceived — might  not  be  able 
to  receive  a  true  message,  although  the  medium  was 
working  in  all  good  faith.  Deceive  and  you  will  be  de- 
ceived. It  is  the  law.  What  we  are  qualifies  what  we 
get.  Deception  draws  deception — honesty  invites  hon- 
esty. We  draw  to  ourselves  our  conditions.  We  are  the 
product  of  what  we  have  thought.  So  think  honest 
thoughts,  speak  honest  words,  and  let  all  your  acts  be 
those  of  sincerity  and  honesty.  Now  in  the  development 
of  the  foregoing  qualities  we  will  fit  ourselves  for  the 
next  great  step  in  mediumship,  which  is 

Fifth— Knowledge 

Knowledge  of  truth  brings  freedom.  Ye  shall  know 
the  truth  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free.  Knowledge 
of  truth  is  very  necessary  to  every  medium  for  without 
it  he  is  worthless — simply  a  puppet,  as  it  were,  for  in- 
fluences of  which  he  knows  absolutely  nothing.  Claim 
from  your  own  higher  nature,  Divine  Intelligence.  Tell 
your  subjective  mind  before  going  to  sleep  to  be  alive, 
awake,  and  to  bring  to  you  divine  intelligence  and  knowl- 
edge— that  knowledge  which  you  should  have  regarding 
the  hidden  laws  of  our  nature.  I  have  put  knowledge  as 
one  of  the  last  acquirements,  as  you  will  notice.  Knowl- 
edge, just  to  gratify  curiosity  or  just  for  the  purpose  of 
knowing  without  a  high  motive  for  its  acquisition  and 
before  the  moral  attributes  and  determination  to  turn  all 
our  faculties  towards  benefitting,  to  the  utmost  of  our 
ability,  our  fellow  man,  may  be  of  infinitely  more  harm 
to  ourselves  than  we  can  think.  I  know  that  many  may 
differ  from  me  and  think  knowledge  and  power  are  al- 
ways good,  but  knowledge  and  power  bring  great  re- 
sponsibilities to  their  possessor,  and  if  they  are  abused 
may  bring  untold  suffering.  Only  desire  knowledge  and 
power  for  the  highest  good  for  all.  This  is  the  only  safe 
way.  But  if  your  whole  being  is  filled  with  an  earnest 
desire  to  be  a  true,  unselfish  worker  for  humanity  and 
for  the  whole  of  humanity,  then  get  all  the  knowledge, 
yes,  and  power,  too,  that  you  can  wisely  use,  for  they 

15 


are  very  necessary  and  of  the  greatest  importance.  I 
wish  to  impress  upon  you  the  importance  of  unselfish- 
ness in  this  work;  for  if  you  allow  yourselves  to  be 
governed  by  selfish  motives,  you  cannot  be  a  true  helper 
to  humanity,  and  may  draw  to  yourselves  much  trouble. 
So  be  sure  to  develop  unselfishness. 

Unselfishness 

You  can  best  do  this  by  trying  to  help  those  who  need 
without  letting  them  or  any  one  else  know  that  you  are 
trying  to  do  so.  Try  to  take  pleasure  in  quietly  and  se- 
cretly helping  others — any  who  need  help.  Think  what 
they  need  and  earnestly  try  to  help  them  not  by  domi- 
nating their  mind  or  trying  to  make  them  do  some  par- 
ticular thing  or  act  but  by  sending  thoughts  of  love, 
wisdom  and  peace  to  their  minds  so  that  they  may  see 
and  know  what  to  do  themselves.  In  this  way  you  may 
develop  unselfishness.  But  there  is  one  more  quality  of 
mind  or  soul,  or  rather  spirit,  which  contains  all  the 
others  and  is  the  most  important  of  all.  With  all  thy 
gettings  be  sure  to  develop 

Love 

That  love  which  casteth  out  all  fear  and  by  which 
alone  the  whole  law  is  fulfilled.  When  your  whole  soul 
is  filled  with  love,  when  you  feel  that  every  atom  of  your 
whole  being  is  love  itself  and  is  pouring  out  love  to  every 
creature  just  as  the  sun  pours  out  its  light  and  heat, 
yes  and  its  very  many  other  influences,  also,  upon  all 
alike,  then  you  will  have  nothing  to  fear  for  such  love 
needs  no  other  protection.  No  Devil,  demon  or  other 
influences  of  darkness  can  then  trouble  you,  for  when 
the  light  has  come,  the  darkness  is  gone.  Then  you  can 
become  a  true  medium  and  influenced  by  your  own 
higher  nature,  the  nature  which  is  of  God — which  is 
God,  you  can  give  out  messages  of  truth  and  power  and 
be  a  medium  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word.  The  love 
of  which  I  speak  brings  peace,  the  peace  that  passeth 
understanding.  I  wonder  if  any  of  you  know  what  it  is 
to  get  perfectly  still,  so  still  that  you  can  see  your  own 
mentality,  as  it  were,  without  one  ripple  of  thought,  yet 
intensely  conscious.  Did  any  of  you  ever  come  into 

16 


touch  with  the  Great  Cosmic  Consciousness  when  you 
knew  that  you  had  no  separate  life  yourself,  but  were 
just  living  in  the  One  Life — One  with  every  being  in  the 
universe?  Were  any  of  you  ever  away  out  on  the  Great 
Ocean  in  a  little  boat  when  it  was  perfectly  calm — when 
not  one  ripple  disturbed  the  whole  surface  of  the  water 
but  it  lay  like  one  vast  mirror  reflecting  all  above  it? 
Now  let  your  own  consciousness  become  perfectly  still, 
let  no  ripple  of  self — no  thought  from  the  intellect — not 
one  vibration  disturb  your  own  mirror  of  consciousness, 
that  consciousness  which  is  so  much  more  conscious  than 
ever  before  that  it  cannot  be  expressed  in  words  and  can 
perfectly  mirror  forth  or  reflect  the  Super-Conscious 
mind,  can  become  a  true  medium  by  which  may  be  shown 
the  truth,  from  on  high,  from  the  Super-Conscious  re- 
gions of  the  universe.  There  is  a  Super-Conscious  region 
or  part  of  the  mind,  just  as  there  is  a  sub-conscious.  But 
in  order  to  give  a  true  reflection  the  consciousness  has  to 
get  still.  "Be  still  and  know  that  I  am  God."  It  has  to 
be  still  and  then  be  lighted  by  the  Great  Universal  Love 
— love  for  all — just  as  the  surface  of  the  ocean  has  to 
be  illumined  by  the  Great  Sun. 

Have  I  put  the  standard  of  mediumship  too  high?  Is 
it  higher  than  truth  and  safety  demands?  I  feel  the 
minds  of  the  Great  Brotherhood  with  whom  I  am  asso- 
ciated say,  No,  and  no  one  should  know  better  than  they 
the  misery,  crime  and  degradation  that  has  come  through 
allowing  the  personality  to  be  governed — dominated  by 
forces  of  which  nothing  is  known.  Know  this:  No  one 
has  the  right  to  let  the  Temple  of  the  Living  God  be  be- 
fouled by  hellish  influences.  Know,  also,  that  no  influ- 
ence which  will  forcibly  dominate  another  person  even  if 
it  claims  to  be  an  angel  of  light,  can  be  trusted.  No 
pure,  high  influence  will  do  so  great  a  wrong  to  any  one. 
I  speak  this  fearlessly,  knowing  the  great  responsibility 
— which  the  true  guides  to  humanity  incur.  And  not  one 
of  them  would  think  of  doing  so  great  an  injury  to  their 
younger  brothers  and  sisters.  So  may  the  higher  power 
help  me  to  speak  the  truth  regarding  this  matter. 

ONE  OF  THE  BROTHERHOOD. 
The  term  "sensitive"  is  more  expressive  and  applicable 

17 


to  those  who  are  in  touch  with  the  unseen  realms  than 
"medium."  The  word  "Psychic"  implies  all  that  is  meant 
by  "medium"  or  "sensitive"  and  more — the  development 
and  use  of  our  own  powers  rather  than  becoming  a  mere 
medium  or  channel  for  the  reception  and  transmission 
of  the  thoughts  of  others.  A  Psychic  acts  of  his  own 
volition;  a  medium  is  acted  upon. 

In  discussing  our  theme  we  shall  assume:  1.  That  all 
men  possess  a  measure  of  sensitiveness  or  mediumship. 

2.  That  the  development  of  mediumship  is  a  process  of 
evolutionary  unfoldment  which  the  race  is  undergoing. 

3.  That  it  is  possible  to  hasten  or  retard  this  develop- 
ment.    4.  That  from  the  nature  of  the  case  our  own 
mediumship   (when  developed)   must  be  more  satisfac- 
tory and  useful  to  us  than  the  mediumship  of  another 
can  be — being  more  evidential,  always  at  hand — costing 
less  in  time  or  money — and  enlarging  our  own  sphere 
of  usefulness  to  a  greater  extent.  . 

There  are  some  phases  of  mediumship  open  and  read- 
ily available  to  all  men,  e.  g.,  the  Impressional. 

In  our  mental  and  spiritual  life  we  are  constantly  com- 
ing into  contact  with  currents  of  thought  vibrations.  We 
are  like  sailors  in  a  choppy  sea  buffeting  waves  from 
every  quarter  and  variable  gusts  of  wind.  Our  mental 
life  is  constantly  changing.  Our  thoughts  wander  from 
subject  to  subject  and  our  moods  change.  Now  while  it 
would  be  a  serious  error  to  attribute  all  these  changes  to 
outside  impression — many  of  them  being  the  outcome  of 
that  constant  activity  of  the  subconscious  mind  sending 
up  to  the  realm  of  consciousness  diverse  thoughts  and 
emotions  from  the  depths  of  our  mental  life  as  the  sea 
tosses  up  from  its  depths  the  various  articles  swept 
about  in  its  internal  currents — yet  doubtless  many  of  our 
changes  of  thought  and  emotion  are  clearly  traceable  to 
the  thought  vibrations  from  other  minds. 

Now  by  careful  study  of  these  changes  of  thought  and 
mood  we  do  two  things:  we  learn  to  distinguish  those 
which  are  foreign  to  our  customary  lines  of  thinking  and 
feeling;  we  also  render  ourselves  more  sensitive  to  these 
vibrations  from  without.  Doubtless  these  thought  vi- 
brations which  are  wafted  to  us  are  not  all  from  the 
mortal  realm,  but  friends,  kindred  and  those  who  are  in 

18 


spiritual  attraction  to  us  from  the  over-lying  and  en- 
compassing spirit  spheres  often  turn  their  thoughts  to 
us  and  we  feel  their  force  and  our  current  of  thought  is 
changed.  It  will  not  take  very  long  for  the  careful  stu- 
dent and  observer  to  convince  himself  through  intro- 
spection that  the  changes  in  his  thoughts  and  moods  are 
not  all  from  within  himself.  Often  the  train  of  thought 
in  which  he  is  indulging  he  will  find  suddenly  broken  in 
upon — sometimes  thoughts  entirely  beyond  his  own  range 
or  ability  will  flow  in  upon  him — sometimes  impressions 
quite  contrary  to  his  own  ordinary  convictions  will  come 
— sometimes  instruction  will  be  given — sometimes  a  deep 
conviction  of  the  truth  of  some  statement  or  proposition 
will  press  itself  upon  him  without  any  logical  thought 
leading  up  to  such  a  conclusion — sometimes  he  will  get 
a  monition  of  danger — sometimes  he  will  find  himself 
unaccountably  cheerful  or  sad  as  the  case  may  be — and 
so  on,  to  the  end  of  the  chapter. 

Now  what  do  we  require  for  the  development  of  this 
phase  of  mediumship?  How  can  we  set  about  it?  In 
many  cases  we  require  only  to  give  attention  to  these 
changes — to  watch  the  outcome — to  study  ourselves — to 
act  upon  impressions  and  test  their  truth.  Often  these 
unaccountable  impressions  are  of  great  value  to  us. 

Another  thing  we  should  do:  sit  in  the  silence  a  few 
moments  daily,  free  our  senses  from  contact  with  ma- 
terial things  and  our  minds  from  care,  worry  or  any 
absorbing  thought,  pivoting  our  attention  lightly  upon 
some  thought  in  concentration  and  becoming  passive,  to 
give  our  spirit  friends  an  opportunity  to  impress  us,  and 
also  an  opportunity  to  our  own  subconscious  mind  to 
speak  to  us. 

To  illustrate  the  value  of  this  impressional  medium- 
ship — even  in  one  who  has  no  claim  to  superior  medium- 
istic  powers — let  me  relate  a  little  circumstance. 

In  the  summer  of  '08  I  had  been  engaged  to  speak  at 
the  Madison  Camp,  Me.,  and  having  a  few  days  free  from 
engagement  prior  to  the  dates  at  Madison,  I  sought  an 
engagement  at  the  neighboring  Etna  Camp.  Their 
dates  were  full,  so  I  had  a  Sunday  and  part  of  a  week 
free.  I  determined  to  leave  Boston  Saturday  morning 
and  to  visit  some  friends  in  Augusta  over  Sunday  and 

19 


the  first  part  of  the  week.  When  Saturday  morning  ar- 
rived and  before  purchasing  my  ticket  for  Augusta  a 
deep  impression — not  put  in  verbal  or  prepositional  form 
— but  just  of  the  single  fact  itself  was  made  upon  my 
mind.  If  I  were  to  express  it  in  words  it  would  be  about 
as  follows:  "You  are  needed  at  Etna,  go  to  Etna,  do 
not  fail  them." 

Now  all  this  in  the  face  of  a  recent  positive  assurance 
from  Etna  that  I  was  not  needed.  So  deep  and  powerful 
the  impression  I  did  not  hesitate  at  all.  I  went  to  Etna 
to  find  the  genial  secretary  at  the  station  to  meet  me, 
and  overjoyed  that  I  had  come.  Brother  Barrett  was 
ill ;  could  not  come. 

"Did  you  get  my  telegram?"  the  secretary  asked. 
"No,  I  got  no  telegram."  "We  did  not  know  where  to 
find  you,  but  have  telegraphed  to  various  points,"  she 
said. 

"How  did  you  know  we  needed  you?"  she  asked  in 
amazement. 

"Oh,  I  knew,"  I  answered,  and  so  I  did. 

Did  I  catch  the  telegram  by  wireless?  Did  I  get  it 
from  her  own  mentality?  Or  did  some  friendly  spirit 
impress  me?  I  do  not  know.  I  know  I  got  the  message, 
that  is  all. 

In  answer  to  the  question,  "How  shall  I  develop  my 
own  Mediumship?"  I  would  say: — 

1.  Make  a  thorough  study  of  Mediumship  in  the  lit- 
erature of  Modern  Spiritualism.    Read,  study,  learn  and 
inwardly  digest  Andrew  Jackson  Davis*  Harmonial  Phil- 
osophy, particularly  "The  Seer,"   "Philosophy  of  Spir- 
itual Intercourse."  "Death  and  the  After  Life,"   "The 
Magic  Staff."     Read  Colville's  Lectures  on  Mediumship 
published  in  "Reason"  Magazine  from  September,  1915, 
to  September,  1917,  now  in  book  form.     Also  Hudson 
Tuttle's  "Laws  of  Mediumship,"  and  Wallace's  Essays 
on  Mediumship. 

2.  Build  up  your  mental  and  moral  faculties  by  care- 
ful study  and  the  most  rigid  training — being  assured 
that  the  spirit  world  can  use  a  cultured  mind  and  a  de- 
veloped brain  to  greater  advantage  than  an  ignorant 
mind  and  a  sluggish  brain.    Everything  that  improves 
you  will  benefit  your  mediumship. 

20 


3.  Give  careful,  prayerful  attention  to  "the  Prepara- 
tion for  Mediumship"  laid  down  above  by  "One  of  the 
Brotherhood." 

4.  Cultivate  Aspiration  for  the  best  and  highest.    Let 
your  soul  go  out  in  intensest  desire  for  Truth  and  Love 
without  which  all  seeking  is  vain.     Your  growth  spir- 
itually will  be  measured  by  your  Desires.    Your  Desires 
will  grow  with  your  knowledge.     Therefore  seek  knowl- 
edge diligently. 

5.  "Wait  on  the  Lord."    What  David  called  waiting  on 
the  Lord,  you  may  call  sitting  for  development,  if  with 
high  and  holy  purpose  you  look  to  the  Spirit  World  for 
guidance  and  help.     Be  regular  and  faithful  in  secret 
prayer. 

6.  Keep  the  worldly  desires  curbed — the  mind  calm 
and  serene — the  body  healthy — and  your  whole  nature 
in  expectant,  hopeful  attitude. 

7.  Breathe  in  by  faith  the  finer  forces  of  the  Universe 
for  your  spiritual  nature  while  you  breathe  the  pure  air 
to  purify  the  blood  and  body.    "Whosoever  will,  let  him 
take  of  the  water  of  life  freely."    Spiritually  apprehend, 
appropriate  and  use  the  finer  spirit  forces  encompassing 
you  as  you  lay  hold  of  the  vital  air. 

8.  Call  on  Wisdom  Teachers  to  come  into  your  life. 
Study  the  lives  of  the  great  Workers  for  humanity  and 
enter  into  sympathy  with  their  life  work.    Thus  you  will 
attract  to  you  those  noble  souls  of  whom  "the  world  was 
not  worthy." 

9.  Harmonize  your  thoughts  and  your  life,  and  build 
your  character  on  Nature's  plane  as  indicated  in  the 
brain:  the  faculties  we  have  in  common  with  the  beast 
having  their  organs  in  the  lower  part  of  the  brain;  the 
intellectual  faculties  having  organs  in  front  and  near  the 
top  of  the  brain;  the  spiritual  faculties  having  organs 
dominant  over  all  others,  coronal,  and  destined,  there- 
fore, to  rulership  in  the  life. 


21 


HOW  TO  SEND  THOUGHT  MESSAGES 

CHAPTER  III 

The  "impossibilities"  of  past  days  are  among  the  easy 
achievements  of  today.  This  is  the  real  age  of  miracles. 
We  are  just  on  the  border  of  more  stupendous  accom- 
plishments than  the  world  has  ever  known.  And  the 
most  wonderful  of  all  present  or  prospective  achieve- 
ments are  among  the  exercise  of  our  Thought  Forces. 

No  discovery  of  our  age  ranks  higher  in  intrinsic 
value  than  Telepathy,  the  general  recognition  of  which 
among  scientific  investigators  is  a  distinguishing  mark 
of  our  era. 

Of  course  Telepathy  is  not  new,  as  men  have  ever 
practiced  it  unconsciously,  and  a  few  Eastern  Adepts 
have  long  consciously  used  the  power  of  thought  trans- 
mission. It  is  only  in  apprehension  of  the  truth,  in  the 
discovery  of  some  of  the  conditions  under  which  it  takes 
place,  and  in  the  conscious  application  of  our  thought 
forces  that  it  may  be  styled  a  discovery.  Thought  power 
is  one  form — a  primal  one  probably — of  the  one  great 
Force  that  creates  and  moves  the  worlds.  Its  study  is 
the  most  practically  important  of  all  branches  of  human 
investigation. 

Before  we  touch  the  question  practically,  it  needs  to 
be  said  that  all  careful  study  and  investigation  that 
deepens  the  conviction  in  the  mind  of  the  student  that 
Telepathy  is  a  fact — and  that,  in  Thought  Transmission, 
there  is  an  open  channel  through  which  he  can  reach  his 
distant  friends  and  influence  them  for  good,  is  of  great 
practical  value  as  a  preparation  for  the  work.  We  need 
confidence  not  only  in  the  ability  of  the  specialist  and 
the  adept  to  transmit  thought,  but  we  should  come  to  a 
clear  recognition  of  the  fact  that  this  is  not  a  special 
gift  to  the  few,  but  the  privilege  and  the  power  of  the 
many.  The  old  Scripture:  "Have  faith  in  God,"  needs 

22 


to  be  amended  to:  "Have  faith  in  yourself,"  and  this  is, 
in  effect,  its  true  meaning. 

By  study,  experiment  and  success,  we  must  translate 
our  faith  in  Telepathy  into  knowledge — as  the  strong 
conviction  of  our  ability  to  reach  our  distant  friends  is, 
other  things  being  equal,  largely  the  measure  of  our 
success  in  thought  transmission. 

To  assist  the  reader,  therefore,  to  this  stronger  con- 
viction, let  us  take  a  brief  preliminary  glance  at  the 
evidence  on  which  our  faith  in  Telepathy  rests. 

Large  numbers  of  people  have  noted  that  it  is  very 
common  for  a  person  ,busily  engaged  in  other  things,  to 
suddenly  think  of  some  person  who  is  about  to  call  upon 
him.  This  very  common  fact  is  most  easily  explained  by 
the  secret  action  of  mind  upon  mind. 

In  a  great  many  cases  where  correspondence  between 
distant  friends  has  been  neglected  for  years — a  sudden 
desire  to  communicate  on  the  part  of  one  of  the  parties 
seems  to  secretly  awaken  the  same  desire  on  the  part  of 
the  other,  and  the  letters  of  the  new  correspondence 
cross  each  other.  Sensitives  like  Mollie  Fancher  and 
others  are  able  to  tell  when  their  friends  are  about  to 
call  upon  them—even  to  describe  their  location  from 
time  to  time  while  upon  the  way. 

In  a  multitude  of  instances  in  the  social  circle,  two 
persons  start  at  the  same  time  to  say  the  same  thing.  In 
time  of  difficulty  and  danger,  when  the  brain  vibrations 
of  an  individual  are  raised  far  above  the  normal,  it  is 
quite  common  for  the  near  relative  or  friend  at  a  dis- 
tance to  get  a  clear  impression  of  the  danger  to  the  ab- 
sent friends —  sometimes,  indeed,  the  whole  scene  is 
flashed  along  those  invisible  lines  of  electro-magnetic 
vibration  that  connect  the  brains  of  relatives  and  affini- 
tized  persons,  and  the  distant  friends  sees  the  endan- 
gered one  in  the  water,  or  wounded  in  battle,  or  falling 
from  some  height.  Such  a  multitude  of  narratives,  well 
authenticated,  attest  these  experiences  that  no  candid 
mind  who  has  studied  them  can  remain  in  doubt  of  their 
truth. 

In  the  actual  experiments  of  the  Society  for  Psychical 
Research  and  in  private  experimentation,  it  has  been 
clearly  demonstrated  that  success  attends  the  conscious 


efforts  of  the  mind  to  reach  other  minds  through  other 
than  the  sensory  channels,  in  a  much  larger  proportion 
of  cases  than  can  be  accounted  for  by  coincidence  or 
chance.  For  example,  in  one  class  of  experiments  con- 
ducted by  a  committee  of  this  society,  an  effort  was 
made  to  transmit  numbers  of  two  digits.  As  there 
would  be  90  possible  combinations,  by  the  law  of  proba- 
bilities, the  chances  for  success  were  only  as  1  to  90. 
Yet  out  of  664  cases,  131  were  successful.  The  success 
of  the  experiments  in  transmitting  arbitrary  designs 
and  geometrical  figures  was  most  marked — sometimes 
attended  by  perfect  success,  sometimes  only  partially 
successful,  yet  leaving  in  all  cases  the  clear  conviction 
that  more  perfect  conditions  and  fuller  knowledge  and 
skill  in  the  art  would  have  achieved  complete  success. 

SUGGESTIONS  FOR  EXPERIMENTERS 

1.  Make  a  systematic  study  of  the  literature  of  this 
question.    Make  a  special  study  of  the  conditions  under 
which  telepathy  takes  place.    Settle  the  great  fact  with 
yourself,  that  the  power  to  telepath  thought  to  others 
is  a  natural  endowment  of  the  race — therefore,  it  be- 
longs to  you,  and  is  not  a  special  gift  to  the  few. 

2.  Select  for  experimentation  some  relative — for  we 
are  told  that  fine  lines  of  electro-magnetic  vibration  con- 
nect the  brains  of  those  between  whom  there  are  ties 
of  blood — or  some  past  associate  with  whose  magnetism 
you  have  come  into  touch,  or  some  one  engaged  in  sim- 
ilar studies  to  your  own  or  cherishing  like  objects  in  life, 
or  working  for  the  same  reforms,  and  hence  upon  simi- 
lar lines  of  thought  vibration. 

3.  Select  as  the  most  favored  hour  for  experiments 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning.    The  hour  is  inconvenient, 
it  is  true,  but  there  are  good  reasons  for  choosing  it.  At 
that  hour  the  disturbing  vibrations  caused  by  the  roar 
and  hum  of  traffic,  the  clang  and  rattle  of  machinery, 
and  the  mingled  thought  vibrations  of  the  multitude — 
all  of  which  render  the  finer  etherial  currents  of  brain 
vibration  more  liable  to  interruption — are  then  at  their 
lowest  intensity.    There  is  another  reason:  Your  subject 
will  then  generally  be  enrapt  in  slumber.    Slumber  of 

24 


course  will  prevent  the  conscious  reception  of  your  mes- 
sage, but  it  will  not  interfere  with  its  real  reception.  In- 
deed, it  will  enter  more  deeply  into  the  nature  of  your 
sleeping  subject  than  it  possibly  could  in  his  waking 
moments.  If,  therefore,  you  wish  to  convey  a  suggestion 
of  health,  hope,  happiness,  success,  or  a  suggestion  that 
shall  amend  his  conduct  or  conditions  in  some  direction, 
you  can  not  do  better  than  to  transmit  your  message  to 
your  friend  while  he  is  asleep. 

4.  In  the  act  of  thought  transmission,  you  must  cul- 
tivate strongly  the  thought  that  your  friend  is  near  you. 
not  afar  off,  as,  indeed,  he  is  near  you  spiritually.    Dis- 
tance applies  only  to  the  separated  bodies;  it  is  practi- 
cally annihilated  in  the  realm  of  mind  and  spirit.    Sense 
this  fact,  that  your  friend  is  in  the  room  with  you: 
visualize  him  as  perfectly  as  possible:  and  put  your  sug- 
gestions into  words.     Speak  the  thought,  the  determi- 
nation, the  hope,  the  assurance  for  him  as  though  he 
himself  were  uttering  it.    Either  let  it  be:  "I  am  recov- 
ering, surely,  quickly  recovering  my  wonted  health,"  or 
"I  shall  never  touch  intoxicants  again.    I  have  the  power 
to  quit  drinking.    I  use  the  power:  I  am  free!"  or  "I  am 
going  to  win  great  success.    I  am  capable  of  success:  it 
is  mine!" 

It  is  the  transfer  of  these  thought  vibrations  to  his 
mentality  that  is  desired.  Hence,  speak  for  him  and 
even  use  his  name  to  deepen  the  impact  of  the  message. 

5.  Give  more  heed  to  reaching  the  subject  in  sleep  or 
in  hypnosis  than  in  the  waking  hours,  as  the  message  is 
much  more  effective  that  is  directed  to  the  subjective 
mind  in  sleep  or  in  hypnosis  than  that  which  reaches  the 
objective  mind.   While  it  may  be  in  a  sense  more  satis- 
factory to  have  your  friend  intelligently  grasp  a  mes- 
sage, yet  remember  that  so  far  as  effect  of  a  sugges- 
tion is  concerned,  it  is  always  greater  when  made  to  the 
subjective  mind. 

6.  Repeat!    Repeat!!    Repeat!!!    To  reach  a  distant 
mind  with  a  message  is  a  great  accomplishment.     Re- 
member how  many  cross-currents  and  interblending  vi- 
brations there  are  to  be  encountered  on  the  way.    It  is 
the  constant  dropping  of  water  that  wears  away  the 
stone.     It  is  the  constant  injection  and  propulsion  of 

26 


your  little  thought  current  into  the  vast  realm  of  your 
friend's  subjective  mind  that  will,  by  and  by,  produce  a 
current  of  thought  therein,  powerful  enough  to  awaken 
his  objective  mind  to  action,  and  he  will  act  upon  this 
injected  suggestion  as  his  own. 

7.  Speak  with  authority  in  sending  the  thought  mes- 
sage especially  to  the  sleeping  friend.    The  subjective 
mind  acts  on  suggestion.     It  is  accustomed  to  obey.    It 
likes  a  Master. 

8.  Concentrate  all  your  mental  and  spiritual  forces 
on  the  messages,  shutting  out  the  sense-world,  shutting 
out  selfish  considerations,  transforming  yourself  for  the 
time  being  into  the  personality  of  your  subject. 

The  way  to  transmit  thought-messages  is  to  transmit 
them. 

TWO  REMARKABLE  ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  SUB- 
CONSCIOUS TELEPATHY 

1.  At  the  time  of  the  Boer  War  in  South  Africa  I 
was  living  in  Parkdale,  Toronto,  Canada.  Large  contin- 
gents of  Canadians  had  joined  the  British  forces  in  this 
war  upon  the  Boers.  Out  of  the  home  of  a  neighbor's 

family  in  Parkdale  had  gone  a  young  man,  George , 

along  with  the  Canadian  soldier  boys  and  the  company 
had  been  heard  from  by  dispatch  as  having  reached  the 
Modder  river.  Some  time  afterwards  the  Canadian 
troops  saw  active  service.  One  day  the  sister  of  George 
in  her  usual  home  duties  suddenly  threw  up  her  hands 
in  great  excitement  and  alarmed  the  family  with  the 
emphatic  statement:  "George  is  shot."  The  family  en- 
deavored but  in  vain  to  relieve  her  agitation  and  per- 
suade her  that  she  had  no  good  reason  for  believing 
that  her  brother  had  been  injured.  She  only  grew  more 
emphatic  in  her  statement  and  unconsolable  in  her  grief. 
When  questioned  for  her  reason  for  such  an  astounding 
statement,  she  said:  "I  saw  him  and  the  troops.  They 
were  riding  across  the  veldt.  He  was  shot  in  the  shoul- 
der and  fell  from  his  horse." 

Some  time  later  a  telegram  announced  this  fact  to  the 
family  and  later  in  due  course  of  mail  a  full  description 
of  the  incident  came,  confirming  in  every  detail  the  sis- 
ter's statement.  When  allowance  was  made  for  the  dif- 

26 


f  erence  in  the  time,  it  was  discovered  that  the  vision  and 
the  wounding  of  her  brother  occurred  at  the  same  hour. 

2.  Some  years  ago  while  Principal  of  the  Alma  (Meth- 
odist) College  in  Canada  a  prominent  Methodist  minis- 
ter related  to  me  an  experience  of  a  similar  character 
which  his  sister  passed  through  in  Midland,  Ontario. 
This  incident  was  published  in  my  book  "Glimpses  of  the 
Unseen,"  under  the  clergyman's  signature.  This  sister, 

Mrs.  P ,  had  had  several  similar  experiences  of 

veridical  vision  of  events  at  a  distance,  in  one  case  wit- 
nessing from  her  Ontario  home  the  drowning  of  a  man 
in  a  lake  in  Michigan.  The  incident  was  as  follows: 

Mrs.  P — was  at  her  home  in  Midland  and  sitting 

quietly  in  her  chair,  and  her  daughters  were  engaged  in 
household  duties,  when  she  became  very  much  excited 
and  called  out  in  alarm:  "John  is  drowning."  John  was 

an  adopted  son  engaged  with  Mr.  P in  lumber 

business  upon  Georgian  Bay.  Mr.  P had  several 

boats  engaged  in  the  lumber-carrying  trade  upon  the 
Bay.  The  daughters  endeavored  to  calm  the  mother's 
agitation  but  in  vain  as  she  kept  crying  out  at  brief  in- 
tervals amid  her  sobs :  "I  saw  him  fall  from  the  boat  . . 
there  he  has  gone  down ....  now  he  has  sunk  the  second 
time ....  Oh,  John  is  drowned." 

They  brought  in  Mr.  P from  his  office  and  he 

assured  his  wife  that  John  was  not  near  the  Bay  for  he 
had  left  him  in  Toronto.  John,  however,  had  gone  down 

to  the  Bay  without  Mr.  P 's  knowledge  and  was 

drowned  about  the  hour  of  Mrs.  P 's  vision,  since 

his  watch  found  on  his  body  had  stopped  at  the  time. 

Now  these  are  two  very  good  illustrations  of  that  un- 
conscious telepathy  that  occurs  in  many  great  crises  in 
life  and  often  at  death,  when  the  brain  is  stirred  to  a 
higher  vibration  by  imminent  danger  or  death  and  the 
thought  vibrations  go  out  with  a  terrific  force  to  some 
loved  relative  or  friend.  Both  these  young  men  instinc- 
tively turned  their  thoughts,  one  to  a  loved  foster  moth- 
er, and  the  other  to  a  favorite  sister,  and  the  rapidity 
and  strength  of  their  brain  vibrations  not  only  carried 
the  dominant  thought  of  their  minds  but  swept  up  and 
carried  along  with  these  thoughts  the  vibrations  of  the 
environment,-  so  that  in  addition  to  the  drowning  boy, 

27 


the  boat,  the  water,  etc.,  were  seen  (in  a  flash),  and,  in 
the  other  case,  the  troopers  and  veldt  of  the  battlefield. 
Such  unconscious  and  powerful  transmission  of  thought 
and  vision  comes  only  through  intensity  of  emotion  and 
a  high  rate  of  brain  vibration.  Most  thought  transmis- 
sions are  unconscious  upon  the  part  of  the  sender  and 
unconsciously  received. 

Yet  let  not  the  pupil  imagine  for  a  moment  that  be- 
cause ideas,  suggestions,  thoughts,  moods,  emotions  are 
unconsciously  received  by  the  subjective  mind  that  they 
are  powerless  and  without  effect  on  the  conduct  and 
character. 

On  the  contrary  they  are  often  more  effective  than 
messages  that  are  received  with  sufficient  impact  to 
awaken  consciousness  to  their  reception  and  source. 
Most  people  resent  the  intrusion  of  another's  efforts  to 
dominate  their  thinking.  When  they  find  that  another 
mentality  is  endeavoring  to  direct  their  thinking  and 
their  conduct  by  thought  messages,  their  natural  com- 
bativeness  is  aroused  and  they  become  positive  and  re- 
pellant  to  such  advances. 

The  persistent  sending  of  silent  suggestions  to  another 
mind  is  cumulative  in  its  effects.  It  starts  in  the  sub- 
conscious mind  a  current  of  mentation  that  in  time  be- 
comes forceful  enough  to  awaken  consciousness,  and  the 
thought  suggested  then  seems  a  product  of  one's  own 
reasoning  and  is  often  graciously  received — as  men  are 
proud  of  their  mental  offspring — and  acted  upon  with 
alacrity.  Many  instances  of  this  kind  have  come  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  teacher. 

How  far,  you  may  ask,  is  one  justified  in  entering  the 
mental  domain  of  another  with  thoughts  and  sugges- 
tions? Only  so  far  as  those  thoughts  and  suggestions 
would  be  held  justifiable  and  correct  if  put  into  the  lan- 
guage of  speech. 

Never  is  one  justified  in  entering  the  mental  domain 
of  another  with  suggestions  for  a  purely  selfish  purpose 
or  suggestions  that  would  detract  from  the  health,  hap- 
piness and  prosperity  of  another. 

There  is  a  great  power  for  good  or  ill  in  thought  mes- 
sages and  great  responsibility  on  the  sender  of  such 
messages. 

28 


HOW  TO  MANAGE  THE  SUB- CONSCIOUS 

MIND 

CHAPTER  IV 
I. 

The  Hudsonian  Theory  is  usually  looked  upon  as  the 
theory  of  two  minds,  although  Mr.  Hudson  did  not  so 
teach.  What  he  emphasized  was  that  the  mind  had  two 
planes  of  operation,  as  distinct  and  different  as  though 
there  were  two  minds.  There  is  no  more  argument  or 
logic  for  two  minds  than  for  twenty  minds.  Yet  all  who 
are  accustomed  to  observe  and  reflect  upon  their  obser- 
vations can  see  how  different  are  the  mental  operations 
during  waking  hours  from  those  in  sleep  or  trance  or 
hypnosis.  Every  individual  has  one  mind  and  only  one — 
yet  it  is  quite  true  there  is  an  arena  of  subconscious 
mentations,  and  that,  as  Hudson  points  out,  the  results 
at  times  are  such  as  might  appear  the  product  of  two 
minds. 

II. 

The  sub-conscious  mind  is  a  vast  store-house  in  which 
are  hidden  from  our  conscious  intelligence  nearly  all  the 
memories  of  our  past  life.  It  is  a  store-house  also  of  all 
those  mental  habits  and  processes  which  we  have  grown 
so  accustomed  to  that  we  need  not  focus  our  attention 
upon  them  in  order  to  secure  their  activity — all  we  need 
to  do  is  to  consciously  start  the  mental  habit  or  process 
and  the  subconscious  automatically  carries  on  the  oper- 
ation. A  boy  in  learning  to  write  must  concentrate  at- 
tention on  his  copy  and  his  work  or  fail.  But  after  ten 
years'  experience  he  can  conceive  a  thought  to  be  ex- 
pressed in  writing,  summon  the  sub-conscious  into  oper- 
ation, and  write  out  the  sentence  while  at  the  same  time 
he  converses  with  you  on  some  interesting  topic.  The 
sub-conscious  works,  therefore,  on  suggestions  we  may 

29 


say  automatically  or  mechanically,  directing  sub-con- 
sciously the  nerves  and  muscles  of  the  hand  and  arm  in 
the  hundreds  of  movements  requisite  in  writing  the  sen- 
tence while  the  main  attention  is  fixed  upon  something 
else. 

Similarly,  the  girl  who  while  learning  music  had  to  put 
her  whole  attention  on  her  fingers  and  the  keys,  can  now, 
as  an  accomplished  musician,  talk  to  you  interestingly 
while  with  her  hands  upon  the  piano  she  renders  a 
sonata. 

The  objective  mind  is  the  waking  consciousness;  the 
subjective  mind  rules  in  sleep,  hypnosis,  trance,  etc.  The 
objective  mind  is  limited;  the  subjective  seems  to  be  an 
ocean  in  the  infinite  sea  of  life  and  practically  unlimited 
in  its  possibilities  and  powers.  The  objective  mind  reas- 
ons inductively  and  deductively;  the  subjective  mind  if 
it  can  be  said  to  reason  at  all,  only  does  so  by  deduction. 
The  objective  mind  acts  on  its  own  initiative ;  the  subjec- 
tive mind  on  suggestion.  The  first  commands;  the  sec- 
ond obeys. 

III. 

It  will  readily  be  seen  on  reflection  that  as  the  sub- 
conscious mind  is  ever  active  (both  in  sleep  and  waking) 
and  inasmuch  as  it  holds  all  the  memories  of  the  past 
(not  an  experience  of  the  life  being  lost)  and  the  con- 
scious mind  only  holds  a  small  part  of  life's  memories, 
and  inasmuch  as  the  sub-conscious  is  the  channel  through 
which  messages  from  other  minds  (mortal  and  spirit) 
are  received,  and  the  one  passage-way  for  communion 
with  universal  mind,  that  the  sub-conscious  mind  does 
most  of  our  thinking;  is  relatively  much  the  larger 
realm  of  mentation ;  is  more  closely  allied  with  the  men- 
tal and  spiritual  world;  and  its  operations  are  (in  some 
ways)  more  directly  associated  with  the  health,  happi- 
ness and  success  of  the  individual  than  the  objective 
mind.  Reason,  after  all,  is  only  a  tiny  taper  on  the  great 
ocean  of  man's  mentality.  Its  rays  do  not  shine  afar 
and  its  operations,  while  intensely  important,  are  only 
efficient  and  powerful  as  they  are  followed  and  com- 
pleted by  the  action  of  the  sub-conscious. 

The  sub-conscious  presides  over  and  directs  all  the 


vital  processes  of  the  body.  It  builds  the  body ;  it  builds 
character;  it  solves  the  unsolved  problems  of  the  con- 
scious mind;  it  uses  its  vast  store  of  memories  and  men- 
tal aptitudes  and  habits,  and  it  can  and  does  contact 
with  other  minds  for  instruction  and  help. 

And  so  it  will  readily  be  seen  that  its  field  of  oper- 
ations is  much  more  extensive  than  that  of  pur  conscious 
mental  life.  Indeed,  if  we  liken  the  objective  mind  and 
reason  to  the  image  of  the  sun  or  the  ocean's  surface  we 
may  regard  the  vast  ocean  beneath  with  its  great  depth 
and  countless  currents  and  upheavals  as  the  sub-con- 
scious mind. 

The  proper  relationship  of  these  two  realms  of  men- 
tality should  engage  the  serious  attention  of  all  who  seek 
efficiency  and  success  in  life.  He  who  ignores  the  sub- 
conscious loses  immeasurably  in  regard  to  health,  hap- 
piness and  success.  He  who  gives  loose  rein  to  the  sub- 
conscious and  allows  it  to  become  the  directive  force  in 
his  life  becomes  mad.  He  is  the  wise  man  who  balances 
the  operations  of  these  two  realms  of  thought,  keeping 
each  in  its  proper  sphere,  and  thus  secures  the  maximum 
in  health  and  life's  achievements. 

IV. 

HOW  TO  SET  THE  SUB-CONSCIOUS  TO  WORK  IN 
SOLVING  PROBLEMS,  SURMOUNTING  DIFFI- 
CULTIES AND  FINDING  A  WAY  OUT  OF 
TROUBLE 

One  of  the  greatest  discoveries  of  the  age  is  the 
mighty  power  of  suggestion.  Through  it  mothers  now 
educate  and  form  the  character  of  their  sleeping  chil- 
dren; by  its  silent  power  our  lives  and  conduct  are  pow- 
erfully influenced ;  through  it  the  sick  are  healed  of  dis- 
eases and  the  slaves  of  drink  and  drug  are  relieved; 
through  it  men  receive  from  other  minds  the  inspiration, 
the  courage,  the  strength  to  begin  life  anew  and  to  ut- 
terly transform  their  characteer. 

This  power  of  suggestion,  recognized  as  one  of  the 
mightiest  forces  we  can  use  in  shaping  the  life  of  an- 
other, can  be  turned  upon  ourselves — through  the  sub- 
si 


conscious — and  a  man  can  build  himself  over  into  a  new 
type  of  manhood. 

The  best  time  to  practice  this  auto-suggestion  is  just 
before  sleep  at  night.  For  fifteen  minutes  before  going 
to  sleep  (by  far  the  most  important  quarter  hour  in  the 
day)  we  should  assiduously  devote  ourselves  to  Mental 
Housecleaning.  That  is,  the  elimination  of  all  inhar- 
monious thought,  feeling  and  volition.  We  must  get  rid 
of  all  destructive  thought — such  as  Fear,  Worry,  Envy, 
Suspicion  ,Hate,  Revenge — opening  the  channels  of  the 
mind  to  the  sunlight  of  truth  and  harmonious  thought 
such  as  Faith,  Hope,  Love,  Peace,  Joy,  Brotherhood, 
Kindness  and  Friendship.  Spend  a  few  moments  count- 
ing the  blessings  of  your  life,  reflecting  on  the  advan- 
tages and  privileges  which  have  crowned  you  individual- 
ly, and  the  love  and  care  of  the  angels,  and  the  divine 
wisdom  manifest  in  causing  all  things  to  work  together 
for  good,  and  upon  the  great  fact  of  "eternal  progres- 
sion." Then  with  mind  purified,  with  grateful  heart  and 
optimistic  spirit,  take  up  the  Unsolved  Problem — the  one 
which  your  reason  has  failed  upon — and  demand  that 
the  sub-conscious  mind  solve  the  problem.  Thus  you 
"commit  your  burden"  unto  the  Lord — as  the  scripture 
expresses  it.  You  are  now  free  and  go  on  your  way 
gladly  just  as  though  the  unsolved  problem  had  never 
been,  or  as  though  it  were  already  solved.  Serene  you 
fold  your  hands  and  wait,  never  taking  up  this  burden 
again  till  there  comes  to  you  by  distinct  promptings  of 
the  sub-conscious  an  intimation  that  the  problem  is 
solved,  or  that  its  solution  is  to  come  through  a  certain 
line  of  activity  on  your  part.  Then  hasten  to  follow  this 
intuition  as  the  hour  of  your  redemption  draweth  nigh. 
Act,  then,  swiftly  and  earnestly  as  though  everything 
depended  on  yourself. 

The  sub-conscious  mind  is  a  vast  storehouse  of  the 
products  of  the  conscious  mind — a  great  ocean  with  its 
hidden  currents  of  mental  activity  and  thought  life,  and 
in  its  effects  on  health,  happiness,  success,  and  charac- 
ter, no  whit  less  important  than  the  conscious  mentality. 
If  we  represent  the  mind  by  the  ocean  we  may  call  all 
of  it  the  sub-conscious  save  the  surface.  Many  thought 

32 


activities,  like  the  hidden  ocean  currents,  do  not  mani- 
fest on  the  surface  of  consciousness. 

The  objective  mind  is  the  waking  consciousness;  the 
subjective  mind  rules  in  sleep,  hypnosis,  trance,  etc.  The 
objective  mind  is  limited;  the  subjective  seems  to  be  an 
ocean  in  the  infinite  sea  of  life  and  practically  unlimited 
in  it  spossibilities  and  powers.  The  objective  mind  reas- 
ons inductively  and  deductively;  the  subjective  mind  if 
it  can  be  said  to  reason  at  all,  only  does  so  by  deduction. 
The  objective  mind  acts  on  its  own  initiative;  the  sub- 
jective mind  on  suggestion.  The  first  commands;  the 
second  obeys,  rules;  the  sub-conscious  obeys  the  con- 
scious mind. 

Inasmuch  as  the  individuality  itself — embracing  the 
physical,  mental  and  spiritual  forces  of  every  individual 
— is  the  result  of  the  workings  of  this  sub-conscious 
mind,  and  as  this  sub-conscious  realm  is  directed  by  and 
obedient  to  the  conscious,  the  proper  treatment  of  the 
"sub-conscious"  becomes  a  matter  of  supreme  impor- 
tance to  every  one  wishing  to  reach  health,  happiness, 
success  and  spirituality.  To  learn  how  to  direct,  develop, 
and  manage  these  two  realms  of  his  mentality  is  to  learn 
the  true  secret  of  human  success  and  greatness. 

Here  then  is  the  relative  work  and  relationship  of  the 
two  spheres  of  mental  activity: — The  conscious  mind 
rules,  the  sub-conscious  obeys;  the  conscious  mind  sug- 
gests the  line  along  which  the  energies  of  the  sub-con- 
scious mind  operate.  The  sub-conscious  mind  receives 
the  impression  or  suggestion,  puts  it  into  the  current  of 
its  own  activities,  enlarges,  modifies  and  ennobles  it,  and 
in  turn  pours  it  back  into  the  conscious  mind  again  with 
increased  power  and  energy  to  bring  the  thought  or  sug- 
gestion into  actuality. 

To  properly  impress  the  sub-conscious  mind  with  the 
right  thought  and  in  the  right  way  means  a  vast  in- 
crease of  mental  strength  and  power  to  attain  one's  de- 
sires in  life. 

The  rule  for  impressing  the  sub-conscious  mind  is  to 
think  clearly,  persistently  and  with  the  strongest  possi- 
ble hope  of  the  good  thing  desired,  or  the  problem  to  be 
solved,  or  the  difficulty  to  be  overcome  and  to  command 
the  sub-conscious  mind  to  realize  these  desires  in  the  life. 

33 


It  is  a  good  rule — at  all  times — to  think  only  of  the 
things  we  desire  to  realize  in  our  lives  since  all  thought 
has  a  tendency  to  photograph  itself  upon  the  sub-con- 
scious mind  and  the  sub-conscious  mind  reproduces  in 
the  life— -often  with  vastly  increased  volume — the  good 
or  the  evil  suggestion  received. 

In  making  a  suggestion  to  the  sub-conscious  mind  of 
the  good  desired  we  must  be  extremely  careful  not  to 
hold  the  good  to  be  obtained  and  evil  to  be  avoided  in  our 
minds  in  contrast,  since  the  sub-conscious  mind  acts 
automatically  and  without  any  bias  toward  good  or  evil. 
Focus  the  desires  and  the  thought  on  the  good  to  be  ob- 
tained, since  the  sub-conscious  reproduces  the  evil  as 
readily  as  the  good.  It  grinds  the  grist  we  give  it;  it 
brings  forth  the  harvest  of  wheat  or  tares  from  our 
sowing  (suggestions)  and  good  soil  we  know  produces 
weeds  as  readily  as  flowers. 

Another  thing  essential  is  to  see  clearly  just  what  we 
want,  to  mentally  visualize  it  in  all  its  parts  and  sur- 
roundings, to  be  deeply  impressed  ourselves,  as  we  try  to 
impress  and  dominate  the  sub-conscious  mind,  with  the 
value  of  the  suggestion  made  or  the  thing  desired. 

Deep  feeling  is  a  prime  requisite  in  impressing  the 
sub-conscious  mind. 

And  whatever  we  properly  impress  on  the  sub-con- 
scious mind  is  taken  up,  acted  upon,  returned  to  the  con- 
scious mind  with  either  definite  plans  for  its  fulfillment, 
or  with  strong  inclinations  the  following  out  of  which 
will  lead  to  realization. 

It  is  Health — not  sickness;  Abundance — not  poverty; 
Success — not  failure,  we  must  persistently  hold  in 
thought — clearly  seeing  and  feeling  the  conditions  we 
would  realize — and  never  allowing  the  opposite  condi- 
tions to  enter  the  mind  especially  when  we  are  impress- 
ing or  commanding  the  "subconscious." 

When  you  have  some  goal  to  attain  and  do  not  see 
the  way,  picture  the  goal  graphically  to  the  mind, 
dwell  on  the  advantages  to  be  gained  till  the  flame  of 
desire  mounts  heavenward  within  your  breast,  then  or- 
der the  sub-conscious  mind  to  find  the  way  and  furnish 
the  power.  It  will  be  done. 

Leave  your  orders — especially  over  night — with  the 

34 


larger  subjective  mind  and  see  how  it  will  operate  to 
impart  the  strength  necessary  or  suggest  intuitively  the 
way  of  attainment. 

Remember  the  sub-conscious  mind  is  in  touch  with  or 
a  part  of  the  infinite  mind  and  its  power  is  only  limited 
by  the  material  you  furnish  it. 

Demand  perfection  in  quality  and  "no  limit"  in  quan- 
tity for  yourself  and  suggest  constant  increase  of  power 
and  insist  on  it.  If  your  thoughts  are  clear  enough  and 
your  desires  deep  enough  to  impress  the  sub-conscious, 
you  will  find  wonderful  results  accruing. 

If  we  cultivate  within  our  minds  the  knowledge  of  the 
great  and  mighty  realm  within  us  and  persistently  try 
to  present  our  ideals  to  the  sub-conscious  mind,  and  as 
new  power  and  clearer  views  of  life's  possibilities  unfold 
before  us,  continue  to  present  still  loftier  and  nobler 
ideals  to  the  sub-conscious,  we  shall  develop  a  power  and 
genius  that  will  astonish  the  world. 

When  the  sub-conscious  mind  has  utilized  our  sug- 
gestions and  is  ready  to  make  response  at  the  time  ap- 
pointed, or  needed,  the  will  must  be  quiescent  for  a  time 
that  we  may  catch  the  full  import  of  that  response.  Use 
the  will  only  in  appealing  to  the  sub-conscious — keep  it 
quiet  and  inactive  when  the  sub-conscious  reports. 

Many  have  an  erroneous  idea  of  the  power  of  the  will. 
Men  cannot  accomplish  the  aims  of  life  by  mere  willing. 
The  will  is  to  be  used  in  suggestion  and  command  of  the 
sub-conscious  mind. 

Aside  from  this  use  of  the  will  it  is  powerless  and  the 
attempt  to  accomplish  by  mere  willing  is  like  trying  to 
lift  one's  self  over  the  mountain  by  one's  boot  straps. 

There  is  a  way  of  making  the  will  omnipotent.  It  real- 
ly becomes  all  powerful  when  we  come  into  conscious 
attunement  with  Nature  and  with  God.  When  through 
knowledge  and  soul  culture  and  altruism  the  human  will 
aligns  with  the  divine  it  becomes  all  powerful. 

We  may  become  what  we  would  become. 

A  good  rule  is  never  to  think  of  our  weakness,  our 
sickness,  our  limitations — for  to  the  real  man  there  can 
be  no  weakness,  no  sickness,  no  limitations,  and  to  think 
of  these  only  offers  the  wrong  seed  to  the  soil  of  the 

35 


sub-conscious  mind  to  be  reproduced  in  wrong  life  and 
character. 

Some  hold  that  all  art,  music,  invention,  genius,  dis- 
covery, inspiration  come  from  the  subjective  mind.  Pos- 
sibly it  would  be  nearer  truth  to  say  through  the  sub- 
conscious mind. 

When  some  problem  too  deep  for  your  present  mental 
strength  presents  itself,  question  the  subjective  mind. 

It  is  a  good  thing  to  "sleep  over"  an  undecided  ques- 
tion. Present  it  fully  and  strongly  before  sleeping.  Ask 
and  demand  its  solution  at  a  given  time. 

Undertake  no  great  enterprise  without  questioning 
this  larger  mind  upon  the  subject. 

Orators,  preachers,  singers,  writers,  ought  always  to 
summon  the  subjective  mind  to  aid  them  when  the 
crucial  hour  of  performance  arrives. 

If  we  hold  the  thought  of  perfect  health  and  deeply 
impress  it  on  the  subjective  mind  no  external  power  can 
bring  us  disease. 

If  diseased,  we  do  the  same,  the  sub-conscious  will  set 
forces  at  once  to  work  toward  recovery. 

It  is  exceedingly  important  to  clear  the  mind  of  all 
thoughts  of  worry,  annoyance,  dread  or  malevolence,  be- 
fore going  to  sleep  as  these  if  carried  into  the  subjective 
mind  will  bring  us  a  harvest  of  ill. 

To  go  to  sleep  properly,  i.  e.,  holding  the  thoughts  of 
health,  hope,  happiness,  and  love  for  all,  and  committing 
all  unsolved  problems  with  confidence  to  the  subjective 
mind  for  solution,  is  to  awake  refreshed,  and  with  forces 
and  suggestions  within  the  mind  that  will  lead  on  to  suc- 
cess and  happiness. 


HOW  TO  HEAL  OURSELVES  AND  OTHERS 

CHAPTER  V 

Healing  the  sick  has  ever  been  considered  an  essential 
part  of  all  true  religion.  All  the  great  religions  have 
taught  and  practiced  healing.  Jesus  owed  much  of  His 
popularity  to  the  marvelous  power  of  healing  He  mani- 
fested. He,  it  is  said,  "healed  all  manner  of  sickness  and 
all  manner  of  diseases."  From  this,  some  have  errone- 
ously inferred  that  Jesus  was  not  limited  in  His  healing 
power — that  He  healed  every  patient,  everywhere  and 
under  every  condition.  We  know,  however,  from  the 
Scriptural  record  that  this  was  not  true.  We  find  him 
very  zealously  making  conditions  for  the  success  of  his 
healing  work — as  for  example  when  He  shut  the  rabble 
out,  and  took  His  three  favorite  apostles,  Peter,  James 
and  John,  and  the  father  and  mother  of  the  sick  child, 
a  thoroughly  magnetic  and  harmonious  company,  into 
the  presence  of  the  girl  to  be  healed.  Doubtless  where 
proper  conditions  could  not  be  made  Jesus  did  not  at- 
tempt the  healing.  If  He  did  attempt  it  under  certain 
conditions  He  evidently  failed  as  we  read  that  in  Caper- 
naum He  did  not  many  mighty  works  because  of  their 
unbelief.  Evidently  the  mental  and  spiritual  attitude 
of  the  people  placed  limitations  on  the  healing  power 
of  Jesus  as  we  know  they  do  on  the  power  and  work  of 
healers  today.  Jesus  healed  entirely  on  the  drugless 
system — employing  the  time-honored  method  of  laying 
on  of  hands  and  the  exercise  of  mental  and  spiritual 
forces. 

Jesus  claimed,  however,  no  monopoly  of  the  healing  or 
other  miraculous  powers,  but  commissioned  His  follow- 
ers to  go  forth  and  heal  the  sick.  Indeed  His  command 
to  heal  the  sick  is  as  clear  and  emphatic  and  binding 
upon  all  His  followers  as  is  His  command  to  preach  His 
gospel  to  the  world. 

37 


Clergymen  have  no  more  right  to  ignore  this  command 
or  neglect  this  duty  than  they  have  to  cancel  His  di- 
vine commission  to  preach  the  gospel.  All  followers  of 
Jesus  are  to  be  healers  of  the  sick. 

Jesus,  then,  ranks  with  the  metaphysical  healers,  the 
drugless  practitioners,  the  faith  healers,  the  magnetic 
healers,  the  spiritual  healers,  and  not  with  the  medical 
profession,  which  relies  largely  on  drug  ministration  and 
surgery. 

Inasmuch  as  all  possess  the  mental  and  spiritual  forces 
within  themselves  on  the  exercise  of  which  health  and 
healing  depends,  all  are  healers.  All  healthy  people  vi- 
brate health  and  life  force  wherever  they  go — hence  all 
can  impart  of  this  health  power  to  their  neighbors. 
Strictly  speaking,  however,  no  one  really  heals  either 
himself  or  his  neighbor,  as  all  true  healing  is  by  the 
vis  medicatrix  naturae,  the  healing  power  of  nature,  or 
in  briefer  language  it  is  God  that  heals  and  God  only. 

"I  dressed  the  wound,"  says  the  motto  over  the  Great 
School  of  Medicine  in  Paris,  "but  God  healed  it." 

The  utmost  the  healer  can  do  for  himself  is  to  bring 
himself  into  harmony  with  the  laws  of  health  and  give 
nature  an  opportunity  to  undo  the  mischief  wrought  by 
violation  of  nature's  laws.  Until  the  mental  and  spiritual 
nature  of  man  is  brought  into  attunement  with  the  laws 
that  govern  man's  inner  life,  and  until  man  through 
knowledge  of  the  laws  of  health  and  obedience  thereto 
has  learned  to  live  naturally,  there  can  be  no  permanent 
cure  of  disease.  Quite  true,  one  may  be  relieved  of  pain 
and  saved  from  some  of  the  effects  of  sickness  by  a  va- 
riety of  methods  in  vogue,  but  no  real  healing  is  done 
until  man  is  brought  into  harmony  with  nature  and  in- 
filled with  that  divine  and  universal  life  that  flows 
through  all  men  fitted  to  receive  it. 

I. 

The  first  thing  to  do  in  healing  one's  self  or  another 
person  is,  therefore,  to  "cease  to  do  evil  and  learn  to  do 
well";  that  is,  to  find  out  and  correct  mistakes  and 
transgressions  of  the  life  and  to  put  the  whole  interior 
life  into  complete  harmony  with  the  course  of  nature. 

38 


In  short,  to  get  into  tune  with  the  Infinite  and  into  the 
current  of  Nature's  finer  forces. 

II. 

We  must  recognize  the  fact  that  we  are  endogens  and 
not  exogens:  we  grow  from  within.  If,  therefore,  we 
keep  the  fountain  of  our  life — our  Thought  Forces,  our 
Emotions,  our  Will,  under  control  and  pure,  all  the 
streams  of  life's  activities  will  be  pure.  A  pure  and 
healthy  mind,  a  lofty  sentiment,  and  a  strong  and  vig- 
orous will,  re-act  upon  the  body  and  furnish  it  with  the 
constructive  vibrations  that  make  for  health  and 
strength. 

III. 

Lofty  as  our  conceptions  may  be  of  this  power  and 
value  of  right  thinking,  willing,  and  feeling,  we  must  not 
ignore  those  great  factors  in  body  building  and  physical 
strengthening  of  our  powers  found  in  abundance  of  pure 
air,  sunshine,  healthful  exercise,  nourishing  food  and 
bathing. 

IV. 

We  may  very  properly  in  hours  of  exhaustion  and  suf- 
fering call  in  the  aid  of  the  magnetic  healer,  the  mental 
healer,  the  Suggestive  Therapeutist  and  others,  if  we 
keep  in  mind  the  great  fact  that  such  aid  is  only  tem- 
porary and  of  the  nature  of  an  expedient  until  we  can 
reopen  the  true  fountain  of  health  within  our  own  nature. 

V. 

We  must  ever  keep  in  mind  the  radical  difference  be- 
tween cure — or  the  removal  of  the  effects  of  disease  (in 
whole  or  in  part)  and  healing,  which  implies  the  destruc- 
tion of  disease  itself  and  the  complete  restoration  of  the 
body  and  soul  to  natural,  i.  e.,  healthy  condition.  Heal- 
ing is  wholeness;  health,  holiness;  and  the  man  who  is 
healthy  in  body,  mind  and  spirit  is  the  holy  man  and  he 
only  is  the  holy  man. 

VI. 

Perfect  and  permanent  healing  is,  therefore,  full  align- 
ment of  our  nature  with  truth  and  a  natural  result  of  a 
conscious  union  with  God.  Men  and  women,  weakened, 

39 


diseased  and  suffering,  have  given  way  to  a  sense  of 
separation  from  the  Divine.  God  is  far  away  from  their 
consciousness.  They  are  like  engines  without  steam,  like 
ships  without  a  wafting  breeze,  like  cars  cut  off  from  the 
power  house,  like  wires  dead  because  the  current  is  off. 
An  hour's  meditation  daily  on  the  ancient  Scripture: 
"In  God  we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being,"  is  not 
only  a  mental  and  spiritual  tonic,  it  is  a  vitalizer  and 
strengthener  of  the  whole  physical  organism  as  well. 

Those  who  have  this  consciousness  of  unison  with  the 
divine  can  consciously  breathe  in  the  abundant  life  of 
God  and  become  possessed  of  such  superabundant  vitali- 
ty that  it  will  exude  from  their  personality,  radiate  in 
their  thought  and  speech  upon  their  associates  and  may 
be  transmitted  to  the  sick  at  a  distance  in  healing 
energy. 

Those  who  cultivate  this  God  consciousness  seriously 
call  for  and  receive  such  essences  and  elixirs,  ethers  and 
chemicals,  out  of  the  unseen  as  are  required  for  perfect 
bodily  health — for  the  whole  pharmacopea  of  drugs  and 
medicines  in  the  material  realm,  exist  in  subtler  forms 
in  the  spiritual — and  thus  cure  the  ills  that  flesh  is  heir 
to  in  themselves  and  in  others. 

In  addition  to  the  ideas  and  methods  already  present- 
ed for  healing  ourselves  and  others,  I  desire  to  call  the 
student's  attention  to: 

1.— "THE  DIRIGATION  OF  THE  THOUGHT  FORCES" 

By  turning  the  attention  to  any  particular  part  or  or- 
gan of  the  body,  and  concentrating  attention  thereon,  we 
cause  a  current  of  "animal  spirits,"  "ode,"  "magnetism," 
or  "vital  force,"  (as  we  may  choose  to  name  that  par- 
ticular fluid  which  permeates  the  psychic  or  spiritual 
body  and  serves  the  same  purpose  therein  which  blood 
does  in  the  physical  form)  to  flow  to  the  particular  point 
or  organ.  This  current  is  immediately  followed  by  an 
increased  flow  of  blood  to  the  same  part.  Attending  this 
increased  flow  of  blood  is,  of  course,  increased  nutrition, 
vitality  and  strength.  In  this  way  we  may  strengthen 
any  weak  organ  or  part,  increase  the  size  of  any  part  of 
the  system,  raise  the  temperature,  and  overcome  largely, 

40 


or  wholly,  the  effects  of  inherited  weakness  or  disease. 
We  may,  in  fact,  build  ourselves  over,  particularly  if  at 
the  same  time  we  are  able  to  persist  daily  in  this  thought 
dirigation  and  practice  suitable  exercises  to  aid  elimi- 
nation. 

The  effect  of  this  direction  of  the  thought  forces  is 
much  increased  if  we  are  able  at  the  time  of  such  con- 
centration to  form  a  clear  conception — to  visualize — the 
effect  to  be  produced.  In  this  as  in  every  other  line  of 
human  activity,  "practice  makes  perfect." 


2.— MAKE  A  PROPER  USE  OF  DRESS,  FOOD,  COLOR, 
AIR,  SUNLIGHT,  WATER,  MAGNETISM  AND 
ELECTRICITY 

All  of  these  affect  our  physical  and  mental  conditions. 
All  of  these  are  mediums  through  which  the  finer  forces 
of  nature  reach  and  permeate  our  being.  All  of  these 
contribute  to  our  physical  comfort  and  our  mental  and 
spiritual  harmony.  These  mediums  make  up  our  life 
conditions  and  the  flow  of  the  vital  forces  of  Nature  into 
our  being  is  largely  helped  or  hindered  by  suitable  food, 
appropriate  dress,  the  right  color,  systematic  and  deep 
breathing — especially  breathing  "with  intent" — abundant 
sunlight,  a  free  use  of  water — both  internally  and  as  an 
exterior  agent — and  magnetism  and  electricity  in  their 
various  forms  and  agencies. 

The  springs  of  health  are  all  about  us — the  main 
fountain  is  within  us — and  if  we  can  only  dismiss  our 
fears  and  learn  and  practice  the  secret  of  uncapping 
these  springs  and  allowing  the  healing  waters  to  flow 
through  us,  we  may  have  the  "more  abundant  life." 

In  a  great  variety  of  ways  we  may  utilize  Nature's 
finer  forces — through  bathing,  sun  baths,  the  color  treat- 
ment of  Dr.  Babbitt,  the  Yogi  health  breathing,  mag- 
netic treatment,  massage,  and  particularly  by  cultivating 
our  consciousness  of  union  with  the  one  Source  of  all 
Life  and  Health — God. 

41 


3.— DISCARD  DRUGS  AND  COME  INTO  CONSCIOUS 
HARMONY  WITH  THE  MAGNETIC  AND  SPIR- 
ITUALIZING OPERATIONS  OF  NATURE 

Dr.  Andrew  Jackson  Davis,  in  Volume  I  of  The  Great 
Harmonia,  declares: 

I  know  that  one-half  of  the  chronic  diseases  prevalent 
in  the  civilized  portions  of  the  earth  are  caused  by  the 
use  of  various  unnaturally  compounded  and  administered 
remedies  which  disturb  permanently  the  spiritual  prin- 
ciple. I  deem  unnatural  almost  every  human  prepara- 
tion which  is  designed  to  cure  diseases;  for  whatever 
man  requires  when  diseased,  is  already  manufactured 
for  him  in  the  innumerable  laboratories  and  ascending 
kingdoms  of  Nature.  Science  and  skill  were  given  to 
mankind  as  means  whereby  to  familiarize  themselves 
with  the  nature  and  principles  of  the  Divine  Essence, 
and  with  the  proper  position  and  use  of  all  things  which 
this  essence  has  unfolded  in  the  immeasurable  Universe. 
Hence  the  concentration  of  chemistry,  skill,  talent  and 
wealth  upon  the  well  meaning  but  unnatural  effort  to 
prepare  medicines  for  human  diseases,  I  cannot  but  re- 
gard as  a  most  unrighteous  prostitution  of  human  en- 
dowments and  possessions.  The  era  of  unity,  health  and 
harmony  is  approaching;  but  I  am  persuaded  that  medi- 
cines can  no  more  produce  physical  harmony,  than  dun- 
geons can  produce  social  harmony;  because  these  means 
are  unnatural  and  arbitrary.  The  individual  must  be- 
come healthy  and  harmonious  by  placing  himself  under 
the  magnetic  and  spiritualizing  operations  of  Nature. 
Man  must  become  natural;  for  the  more  natural  he  be- 
comes, the  more  is  he  healthy  and  like  an  angel.  And 
disease  in  individuals,  as  in  society,  will  be  overcome  and 
extirpated  through  the  mediums  of  intellectual  or  spir- 
itual development  and  hereditary  descent  or  predisposi- 
tion to  goodness. 

4.— PRACTICE  AUTO-SUGGESTION 

One  of  the  most  wonderful  discoveries  of  our  age  is 
the  knowledge  of  the  great  potency  in  suggestion.  To 
minds  in  a  passive  state,  or  receptive  as  we  say,  espe- 

42 


cially  to  those  under  partial  or  full  hypnosis,  suggestion 
becomes  an  almost  absolute  law  and  powerfully  affects 
health,  happiness,  character  and  success. 

The  public  seem  to  be  better  acquainted  with  the 
power  of  suggestion  in  its  application  to  others  than 
with  the  subject  of  auto-suggestion  or  the  treatment  of 
one's  self.  Yet  the  same  principle  applies  and  through 
this  mighty  agency  a  man  may  treat  himself  success- 
fully for  recovery  of  health,  and  may,  indeed,  transform 
his  character  into  quite  another  type  and  reconstruct 
both  the  bodily  and  mental  life. 

Astounding  as  the  fact  may  seem,  it  is  true  that  we 
can  make  ourselves  over  as  the  carpenter  refashions  a 
house  or  a  ship,  as  the  tailor  refashions  a  garment.  And 
in  this  transformation  of  character  to  higher  and 'nobler 
type  the  most  powerful  agency  is  suggestion. 

The  method  of  successful  self-suggestion,  stripped  of 
all  technicalities,  is  along  this  line: 

1.  Form  clear  and  definite  ideas  of  what  we  would 
be,  the  heights  we  would  attain,  the  objects  we  would 
secure,  or,  if  sick,  the  changes  desired  in  our  condition. 
We  must  mentally  see,  and  see  with  clearness,  the  quali- 
ties and  characteristics  we  would  reach  or  the  objects  we 
would  win,  as  these  photograph  themselves  upon  the  sub- 
conscious mind  and  set  the  hidden  forces  of  our  nature 
at  work  to  secure  their  realization.    To  take  a  good  pho- 
tograph we  require  a  good  light  and  as  the  plate  must 
catch  reflections  from  all  parts  of  the   object  photo- 
graphed,  so  our  sub-conscious  activities   must  be   im- 
pressed with  the  full  and  clear  outline  of  our  soul  desires. 

2.  We  must  cultivate  earnest  desire  for  the  objects 
aimed  at.    The  measure  of  desire  is  the  measure  of  im- 
pression we  make  on  the  sub-conscious  mind.    Herein  is 
the  value  of  knowledge,  reading,  study — these  show  us 
the  advantages  to  be  gained  and  excite  the  desires  of  the 
soul.     "Blessed  are  they  that  hunger  and  thirst,"  said 
the  great  Nazarene.    Study  and  meditate  until  the  soul 
is  ablaze  with  desire. 

3.  Have  faith — in  yourself.    Most  people  have  faith 
in  the  ability  of  others,  but  lack  of  faith  in  themselves. 
We  must  realize,  if  possible,  our  own  worth,  power  and 
talent  and  cultivate  faith  in  the  hidden  resources  of  our 

43 


being.  The  sub-conscious  mind  is  connected  with  the  in- 
finite mind  and  can  draw  upon  the  divine  resources  with- 
out restraint,  except  the  limitations  put  upon  this  out- 
flow by  our  heredity  or  our  lack  of  faith. 

This  same  principle  may  be  applied  to  others,  especial- 
ly those  linked  to  us  by  ties  of  blood  or  mental  or  spir- 
itual affinity. 

Thompson  Jay  Hudson  in  his  "Law  of  Psychic  Phe- 
nomena" gives  the  result  of  many  experiments  in  treat- 
ing the  sick  by  suggestion — all  unknown  to  the  patients 
— by  absent  treatment  and  in  the  night  season.  About 
seventy  per  cent,  of  his  silent  treatments  were  suc- 
cessful. 

When  under  sleep  or  hypnosis  the  sub-conscious  mind 
is  more  accessible  and  more  deeply  influenced. 

By  repeatedly  throwing  out  the  thought  of  recovery 
to  the  sick  in  the  night  season,  we  start  a  current  in  the 
sub-conscious  mentation  of  the  patient  which  in  turn 
reaches  the  consciousness  and  the  thought  of  recovery  is 
born  within  his  objective  mind.  This  optimistic  thought 
rouses  the  soul  forces  to  higher  vibration  and  assists  the 
organism  to  throw  off  the  lower  vibrations  of  disease 
and  aids  nature  in  restoring  normal  health  conditions. 


44 


THE  COMMON  ORIGIN  OF  RELIGION 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Whence  come  the  nearly  two  hundred  religions  that 
are  found  in  America  and  the  innumerable  religions  of 
other  lands?  Each  of  them  claiming  a  divine  authority, 
each  professing  to  be  the  one  genuine  and  simon-pure 
religion  and  superior  to  all  others  in  the  field.  All  of 
them  proclaiming  some  helpful  truths  and  very  much  the 
same  moral  teaching,  and  yet  nearly  all  of  them  helping 
to  hold  their  followers  in  mental  slavery  and  more  or 
less  sectarian  narrowness? 

There  are  two  great  theories  as  to  the  origin  of  re- 
ligions, viz:  That  all  religions  are  human  in  origin,  falli- 
ble in  their  teaching  and  without  authority,  save  one, 
and  this  one  is  of  God,  and  true  and  authoritative.  All 
were  man-made  but  one  ;this  one  religion  was  fash- 
ioned of  God  and  handed  down  through  chosen  channels 
to  mankind.  Nearly  every  religion  subscribes  to  this 
view  and  differs  only  from  all  the  other  religions  in  re- 
gard to  which  one  of  the  multitude  of  religions  is  the 
divine  one,  with  authority  and  with  saving  grace.  Each 
religion  modestly  claims  this  honor  for  itself. 

The  other  view — that  of  Liberals  in  general  and  of 
Spiritualists  in  particular — is  that  all  religions,  without 
any  exception  whatever,  are  human,  fallible,  possessed 
of  no  authority  except  the  authority  of  the  truth  they 
proclaim — much  or  little  as  the  case  may  be — for  truth 
is  alway  authoritative.  Whether  in  the  revered  bibles 
of  past  days,  or  in  some  divine  publication  of  today, 
truth  is  everywhere  and  always  an  authority.  Every  re- 
ligion is  the  product  of  the  human  brain  and  heart  seek- 
ing truth  and  the  highest  good.  This  does  not  imply 
that  inspiration  is  not  a  factor  in  the  origin  of  re- 
ligions. So  far  from  that  being  true — inspiration  is  so 
common  and  so  varied  and  so  diverse  in  its  effects  that 

45 


it  may  be  said  to  enter  into  all  that  pertains  to  man's 
mental,  moral  and  spiritual  activities. 

But  inspiration  is  not  infallible  or  authoritative  and 
depends  for  the  truth  and  the  value  of  its  message,  upon 
the  source  from  which  it  springs  and  the  channel 
through  which  it  flows.  Doubtless  Mahomet  was  inspired ; 
so  was  Zoroaster;  so  was  Buddha;  so  was  Socrates. 

If  our  Orthodox  friends  persist  in  the  view  that  one 
religion — their  religion — is  different  in  origin,  authority, 
nature,  destiny,  from  all  other  religions,  the  burden  of 
proof  is  theirs,  not  ours. 

The  natural,  logical  inference  is  that  one  thousand 
trees  growing  in  the  same  soil,  breathing  the  same  at- 
mosphere, under  the  same  sun,  have  had  a  common  ori- 
gin. If  you  assert  and  ask  men  to  believe  that  one  of 
these  trees  has  had  a  miraculous  origin  while  the  others 
all  had  a  natural  origin,  you  must  prove  your  case.  Men 
naturally  believe  in  nature  and  reject  miracle  and  they 
will  simply  laugh  your  assertion  out  of  court,  till  you 
prove  that  a  miracle  was  required  to  produce  one  out  of 
a  thousand  trees — all  the  rest  having  a  natural  origin. 
Similarly  should  you  contend  that  one  man  out  of  the 
countless  millions  of  earth's  inhabitants  was  born  by 
miracle;  or  that  one  planet  out  of  the  innumerable  sys- 
tems in  the  heavens  required  a  miracle  for  its  produc- 
tion; or  that  one  book  of  all  books  came  into  existence 
by  miracle! — in  each  case  you  must  prove  your  conten- 
tion, because  the  native  judgment  of  mankind  affirms 
otherwise  and  we  naturally  infer  that  if  natural  causes 
produced  all  men,  all  planets,  all  books  except  one,  the 
great  probability  is  that  natural  causes  produced  them 
all. 

This  line  of  reasoning  does  not  require  us  to  ignore 
the  distinctions  in  religions,  in  men,  in  books,  in  trees. 
We  may  readily  recognize  one  tree  as  the  largest  and 
most  beautiful  of  the  forest  without  considering  it  the 
product  of  miracle.  So  with  men,  books,  religions — the 
fact  that  one  is  superior  to  all  others  by  no  means  com- 
pels us  to  believe  its  origin  a  miracle. 

All  religions  have  a  humble  origin,  a  youth,  a  man- 
hood and  an  old  age  and  decay.  They  all  undergo 
changes,  owing  to  the  changing  views  of  the  times  and 

46 


social  and  political  environment.  They  spring  out  of 
each  other  generally  as  shoots  spring  from  the  roots  of 
fallen  trees.  They  are  all  in  a  state  of  flux — never  con- 
tinuing uniform  in  their  teaching,  practice  and  policy. 

The  special  claims  that  have  been  made  for  Christian- 
ity as  a  Supernatural  Religion  are  today  discredited  by 
the  teachings  of  Science  and  the  studies  of  "Compara- 
tive Religions."  The  claim  of  Originality  in  its  teach- 
ings can  now  no  longer  be  maintained.  Even  the  Old 
Testament  is  a  copy  of  early  Babylonian  and  Assyrian 
literature  as  the  Code  of  Hammurabi  proves.  The  cardi- 
nal teachings  of  Christianity — divine  fatherhood,  human 
brotherhood,  love  and  service  of  mankind,  truth,  justice, 
charity  and  kindness  are  all  found — with  greater  or 
lesser  fullness — in  other  religions,  many  of  them  cen- 
turies older  than  the  Christian  Church.  Christianity  has 
had  its  evolution  and  is  now  being  remoulded  and  re- 
shaped by  the  enlarging  science  of  today  and  the  higher 
moral  consciousness  of  the  race.  The  Christianity  of 
Jesus  and  the  Synoptists  was  quite  different  from  the 
Christianity  of  St.  John  a  hundred  or  more  years  later. 
The  Christianity  of  St.  John  was  superseded  by  that  of 
500  A.  D.,  and  the  Christianity  of  Luther's  time  different 
still — and  the  Christianity  of  today  unlike  any  preced- 
ing type  of  the  same  religion. 

The  character  of  Jesus  as  portrayed  in  the  Gospels  is 
one  of  rare  beauty  and  it  is  hard  to  over-estimate  the 
high  moral  and  spiritual  effects  of  that  portrait — wheth- 
er a  fiction  or  a  fact — upon  mankind.  Yet  assuming 
Jesus  to  have  been  as  pure  and  blameless  and  as  high  an 
authority  as  Orthodoxy  represents,  nothing  seems  more 
certain  to  a  candid  student  of  N.  T.  Christianity  and 
the  Orthodoxxy  of  today  than  this:  Jesus  never  taught 
the  fundamental  principles  of  Orthodoxy,  and  he  did 
teach  many  principles  utterly  at  variance  with  the 
church  teachings  of  our  times.  Candid  judgment  upon 
all  the  facts  in  the  case  will  place  him  among  the  Seers 
of  the  Ages,  among  the  Prophets,  among  those  who  be- 
lieved in  and  practiced  communion  with  the  intelligences 
of  the  Spirit  Realm.  He  never  claimed  authority  for 
himself — only  for  the  Truth.  He  claimed  no  wisdom, 

47 


power,  gift,  or  authority  not  equally  open  to  his  fol- 
lowers. 

As  to  Miracles  and  Prophecies — it  is  vain  to  allude  to 
these  as  proofs  of  the  miraculous  origin  of  any  partic- 
ular religion,  since  all  religions  are  based  upon  miracles 
and  prophecies  of  the  very  same  nature — and  seemingly 
just  as  well  authenticated — viz:  healing  the  sick,  rais- 
ing the  (so-called)  dead — foretelling  events,  etc.,  etc. 

As  to  the  supposed  effects  of  Christianity  being  an 
argument  for  its  supernatural  origin,  it  is  very  difficult 
to  say  that  because  a  man  professes  the  Christian  re- 
ligion, his  good  deeds  spring  out  of  his  religion.  If  so, 
whence  the  good  deeds  of  many  heathen?  Whence  the 
high  morality  of  other  religions  ?  Whence  the  bad  deeds 
of  professing  Christians? 

A  multitude  of  causes  enter  into  the  formation  of  hu- 
man character  and  the  determination  of  human  conduct. 

Let  us  illustrate.  Here  is  a  boat  going  down  stream 
and  in  it  are  five  rowers.  In  the  front  is  a  priest,  next 
to  him  a  teacher,  and  next  to  him  a  scientist,  and  next 
to  him  a  spiritualist,  and  last  of  all  a  sceptic,  all  with 
their  paddles  in  the  water.  After  a  time  the  priest 
breaks  the  silence  and  says:  "Gentlemen,  have  you  ob- 
served how  far  and  how  fast  the  boast  has  gone  since  I 
placed  my  paddle  in  the  water  ?  Surely  no  one  can  doubt 
that  our  progress  is  largely  due  to  my  vigorous  pad- 
dling." "But,"  cry  the  whole  company  in  chorus,  "we 
also  are  urging  forward  the  craft.  What  right  have  you 
to  a  monopoly  of  credit?"  And  while  they  dispute  the 
relative  credit  due  to  each  for  the  progress  of  the  boat, 
I  hear  the  current  finding  voice  and  saying:  "For  one 
mile  of  progress  through  all  your  joint  efforts,  please 
credit  me  at  least  five.  I  do  more  than  all  of  you  com- 
bined." Then  I  hear  the  wind  speaking:  "Gentlemen,  I, 
too,  contribute  to  the  progress  of  your  craft.  In  fact 
I  do  more  to  speed  it  than  all  your  paddling." 

Religion  is  in  fact  only  one  of  the  many  factors  that 
assist  the  progress  of  humanity,  and,  unfortunately,  it 
has  often  been  so  abused  as  to  retard  human  progress 
rather  than  promote  it.  Art,  music,  education,  govern- 
ment, science,  invention,  industry,  commerce,  and  many 
other  factors  contribute  to  the  growth  of  human  knowl- 

48 


edge,  a  higher  morality  and  the  growing  spirit  of  human 
brotherhood. 

But  two  great  elements — not  usually  recognized  or 
duly  credited — enter  into  human  progress  and  better- 
ment. These  are  first  the  "Spirit  of  Progress,"  inherent 
in  the  soul  itself — that  divine  urge  within  the  man  that 
is  ever  prompting  the  individual  and  the  nation  to  reach 
out  and  on  and  up  to  higher  and  better  things.  This  is 
the  "Current"  alluded  to  in  my  illustration — the  Evolu- 
tionary Force  within  the  soul  itself. 

In  addition  to  this  force  within  the  soul  that  every- 
where and  always  tends  to  progress — there  is  a  Force 
without  the  Soul,  which  I  denominate  Inspiration,  com- 
mon to  all  lands  and  ages,  which  may  be  compared  to 
the  influence  of  sunshine  on  plants  and  animals.  The  im- 
press of  the  great  Realm  of  Spirit,  which  Longfellow  de- 
clared floats  over  and  about  this  mortal  realm  "like  an  at- 
mosphere," is  universal,  constant,  and  mighty  for  good. 

So  there  is  no  evidence  that  is  conclusive  as  to  the 
miraculous  origiin  of  the  Christian  religion  in  the  fact 
that  many  professed  Christians  lead  lives  of  lofty  moral- 
ity and  benevolence.  Even  if  we  believe  this  fact  di- 
rectly to  the  example  and  teaching  of  the  blessed  Nazar- 
ene,  we  are  by  no  means  warranted  in  regarding  the 
origin  of  Christianity  as  a  miracle,  or  in  confounding  his 
simple  and  beautiful  teaching  with  the  travesty  known 
as  Orthodoxy  today. 

In  a  succeeding  paper  I  shall  point  out  the  similar 
teachings,  customs,  practices  and  beliefs  of  Christian 
and  non-Christian  religions. 

One  of  the  most  important  departments  of  study  re- 
lating to  Religion  has  had  its  inception  in  our  own  day — 
the  "Science  of  Comparative  Religions" — the  study  of 
which  discloses  amazing  degrees  of  similarity  in  all  the 
great  religions,  the  difference  being  mostly  those  of 
terminology  and  such  incidental  changes  as  would  result 
from  the  peculiarities  of  climate,  race,  customs  and  hab- 
its of  the  people.  From  this  study  we  learn  that  new 
religions  spring  out  of  old  ones  by  the  budding  process, 
by  new  shoots  springing  out  of  the  old  trunk,  and  hold 
various  degrees  of  relationship  to  each  other  just  as  sys- 
tems of  education  and  philosophy  and  government  do. 

49 


Allowing  for  differences  in  intellectual  and  spiritual 
unfoldment,  all  religions  practically  teach  the  same  mo- 
rality, have  the  same  stages  of  inception,  growth,  ma- 
turity and  decline,  and  the  relationship  between  them 
can  be  traced  as  clearly  as  the  relationships  between 
nations  and  races.  It  seems,  therefore,  most  natural 
and  rational  to  refer  them  all  to  a  common  and  natural 
origin  as  eexpressions  of  the  spiritual  nature  of  man  in 
its  search  for  the  good,  the  true  and  the  beautiful — 
man's  search  for  the  chief  good. 

Just  as  in  a  forest  of  trees  growing  out  of  one  soil, 
under  one  sky,  in  the  same  atmosphere,  under  one  sun, 
it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  every  tree  had  a  purely  nat- 
ural origin — so  with  all  religions,  bibles,  and  religious 
leaders.  Reason  forbids  us  from  giving  a  supernatural 
origin  to  one  bible,  to  one  religion,  to  one  Saviour  or 
Messiah  and  making  all  others  human.  Reason  declares 
that  since  the  dawn  of  human  history  there  has  never 
been  an  infallible  book,  an  infallible  creed,  an  infallible 
church,  nor  an  infallible  man. 

If  you  dispute  this  natural  inference,  the  burden  of 
proof  rests  on  you  to  prove  the  supernatural  character 
of  your  book  or  church  or  man. 

Max  Muller  declares  that  there  is  no  religion  which 
does  not  teach  us  to  do  good  and  avoid  evil.  Frederick 
W.  Harrison  says  that  the  new  religion  is  very  old  and 
that  in  studying  religions  you  are  constantly  meeting  the 
same  features,  though  differently  named. 

The  Institutions  of  religion  are  the  same  practically  in 
all  the  systems — you  have  monks,  missionaries,  priests 
and  pilgrims  in  them  all.  The  Ritual  is  very  similar  in 
all;  prayers,  liturgies  and  sacraments.  The  Instruments 
are  about  the  same:  incense,  candles  ,holy  water,  relics, 
etc.  The  Symbols  of  all  the  religions  are  practically 
one:  the  cross,  the  serpent,  the  all-seeing  eye. 

You  have  prophecies  and  miracles  (so-called)  in  all. 
The  sick  are  healed,  the  dead  (so-called)  are  restored 
and  evil  spirits  cast  out  in  all.  The  Holy  Days  are  prac- 
tically the  same  in  all  the  great  religions :  Christmas  and 
Easter  being  selected  at  the  same  seasons  in  all  the  re- 
ligions, though  under  different  names,  among  the  Per- 
sians, Grecians  and  Romans. 

50 


The  Artistic  Designs  in  all  the  religions  are  The  Ma- 
donna and  Child,  which  were  worshipped  alike  in  Arabia, 
Egypt  and  Thibet.  None  of  the  great  religions  seem 
final  and  absolute  and  authoritative,  not  even  Christiani- 
ty, for  Jesus  declared  he  had  much  truth  yet  to  give  his 
followers  for  which  they  would  have  to  await  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Spirit,  not  being  prepared  to  receive  these 
teachings  at  that  time. 

Christianity  itself  has  undergone  immense  transforma- 
tions under  the  law  of  evolution  and  is  constantly  chang- 
ing its  methods  and  teachings.  In  doctrine,  practice,  and 
methods  the  Christianity  of  Jesus  differed  from  the 
Christianity  of  the  Apostle  John  one  hundred  years 
later — and  this  in  turn  differed  widely  from  that  of  A.  D. 
500 — and  this  most  radically  from  the  mongrel  collection 
of  teaching  known  as  Christianity  today. 

Again  all  the  sacred  books  (bibles)  practically  taught 
one  doctrine,  contained  the  same  legends  of  Creation, 
flood,  babel,  the  fall  of  man,  and  accounts  of  miracles. 
That  our  Bible  accounts  of  these  legends  and  histories 
are  not  original  but  borrowed  from  earlier  systems  of 
teaching  is  now  as  certain  as  any  facts  can  be  made  by 
overwhelming  evidence.  The  Code  of  Hammurabi  is 
much  older  than  that  of  Moses  and  contains  the  essential 
features  of  Judaic  legislations  and  economy. 

Sacrifice — one  of  the  great  institutions  of  religion, 
existed  in  all  primitive  religions  and  is  a  clear  evidence 
of  the  savagery  under  which  these  religions  were  con- 
ceived and  brought  forth.  Among  savages  today  the 
petty  king  or  tyrant  is  -appeased  and  bribed  with  gifts, 
mostly  of  animals,  and  as  his  favor  was  to  be  won  only 
in  this  way  or  by  the  blood  of  his  enemies,  men  in  their 
fear  of  the  Supreme  naturally  imagined  God  was  to  be 
propitiated  in  the  same  way.  Religion  was  begotten  in 
fear,  and  in  this  dogma  of  "Salvation  by  Blood,"  we 
have  the  ear-marks  of  its  savage  origin.  From  animal 
sacrifice  the  step  to  human  sacrifices  was  easy  and  nat- 
ural and  in  the  Old  Testament  times  the  people  had  not 
outgrown  the  doctrine  of  human  sacrifices.  Witness  the 
command  to  Abraham  and  the  temptation  to  sacrifice 
Isaac.  The  actual  sacrifice  of  Jeptha's  daughter  is  an- 
other fearful  illustration.  And  the  hewing  of  Agag  to 

51 


pieces  by  Samuel,  the  blood-thirsty  prophet  of  Jehovah, 
"before  the  Lord,"  was — as  this  Hebrew  expression  im- 
plies— a  sacrifice  of  human  life  to  Jehovah. 

Circumcision  was  not  peculiar  to  the  Jews.  It  was  a 
primitive  Arabian  custom  and  spread  from  there  into 
India,  Turkey,  and  was  found  among  the  ancient  Canaan- 
ites,  among  South  Sea  races,  among  the  Kaffirs  of  Africa. 

Baptism  was  long  in  use  in  the  other  great  religions 
before  John  the  Baptist  conducted  his  mission.  It  was 
the  Ceremony  of  Initiation  of  the  Candidates  into  the 
Mysteries  of  Religion  in  Egypt  and  other  lands.  It  was 
always  associated  with  the  doctrine  of  the  "Second 
Birth,"  as  we  shall  see.  The  Candidate  in  the  ordeals  to 
which  he  was  bound  to  submit  was  hypnotized  and  put 
into  a  trance  for  three  days.  His  spirit  was  sent  into 
the  astral  realm  that  it  might  contact  the  elements! — 
fire,  air,  earth,  and  water,  learn  to  face  the  sights  and 
sounds  of  the  astral  realm  and  learn  how  to  guide,  in- 
spire and  teach  those  who  needed  similar  instruction. 

On  the  fourth  day  the  Candidate  was  awakened — his 
body  lying  during  these  three  days  in  a  rock-hewn  sepul- 
chre with  a  cross  upon  it-—and  baptized,  clothed  in  pure 
linen,  and  he  was  then  said  to  be  "born  again." 

The  Eucharist  was  celebrated  centuries  before  our  era 
in  many  lands,  notably  in  Mexico  where  the  ancient 
Mexicans  had  a  supper  in  which  they  ate  the  flesh  of 
their  God.  Father  Grueber,  the  Catholic  missionary  in 
Mexico,  believed  the  Devil  must  have  instituted  this  long 
in  advance  of  Christianity,  to  ridicule  the  real  and  true 
Christianity  when  it  should  appear. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  is  not  pe- 
culiar to  Christianity.  Divine  Incarnations,  and  virgin- 
born  gods  and  goddesses  are  frequent  in  Greek  and  Ro- 
man Mythology.  Osihis  of  Egypt  was  a  son  of  God, 
taught  a  chosen  race,  went  out  to  evangelize  the  people, 
was  slain  and  descended  into  hell,  rose  from  the  dead 
and  presides  over  all  his  followers. 

Buddha  was  virgin-born.  He  was  called  the  "Word" 
or  "Logos."  Also  called  the  "Saviour  of  Men."  He  em- 
barrassed his  teachers  in  his  childhood  by  his  superior 
wisdom.  He  was  tempted.  He  went  out  to  evangelize 
his  people.  He  made  the  great  Renunciation  of  his 

52 


kingdom,  his  home  and  friends.  He  declared  he  would 
never  accept  any  salvation  for  himself  which  should  not 
belong  to  all  men.  He  abolished  caste  and  cruelty.  He 
taught  the  doctrine  of  the  forgiveness  of  injuries.  He 
received  the  outcasts.  According  to  the  legend  he  was 
slain,  descended  into  hell  and  rose  again. 

The  Forty  Day  Fasts  are  by  no  means  peculiar  to 
Bible  teaching  and  the  Christian  religion.  Originally, 
the  fasting  period  was  one  week,  but  this  was  changed 
A.  D.  519  to  a  fast  of  forty  days.  The  Mexicans  had 
such  a  fast  in  honor  of  the  Sun.  In  Egypt  there  was  a 
fast  and  mourning  period  for  Osiris  of  forty  days.  In 
Persia  such  a  fast  became  a  festival  of  salutation  to 
Mithra,  the  Sun-God. 

Nor  is  Easter  peculiar  to  Christianity.  The  word  is 
by  many  traced  to  Ishtar,  the  virgin  mother  of  Tam- 
muz,  the  Saviour-god  of  the  Babylonians. 

While  most  open-minded  students  of  primitive  Chris- 
tianity trace  its  origin  to  some  such  personality  as  that 
of  Jesus  in  the  Gospels,  it  must  be  confessed  that  when 
we  seek  to  fix  upon  definite  facts  and  dates  in  the  life 
of  Jesus  and  apply  the  rules  of  the  Higher  Criticism  to 
his  life  story,  we  find  ourselves  in  a  sea  of  uncertainty 
and  conjecture.  For  example,  the  date  of  his  birth  has 
never  been  fixed  with  any  degree  of  certitude.  Accord- 
ing to  Canon  Farrar,  the  great  Anglican  authority, 
every  date  between  June  and  September  has  been  ad- 
vanced as  the  date  of  his  birth.  The  one  thing  that  is 
definitely  known  among  scholars  is  the  common  date  as- 
signed, December  25th,  is  not  the  date  of  the  birth  of 
Jesus.  This  date  was  sanctioned  by  Pope  Julius  I,  337 
A.  D.  St.  Chrysostom  declares  that  the  date  of  Jesus' 
birth  was  fixed  in  December  to  be  in  harmony  with  the 
celebration  of  the  birth  of  the  heathen  Savior-Gods 
which  were  celebrated  in  that  month.  It  is  a  singular 
fact  that  there  is  no  representation  of  a  crucified  Jesus 
in  art  for  six  centuries  after  the  date  assigned  for  his 
birth.  The  first  symbol  of  Jesus  was  that  of  a  lamb, 
then  of  a  lamb  upon  a  cross,  and  at  the  Sixth  Synod  of 
Constantine,  A.  D.  608,  it  was  ordered  that  the  recog- 
nized symbol  of  Christianity  should  be  a  man  upon  a 
cross. 

53 


The  Saviour-Gods  of  the  different  religions  were  all 
born  in  December  (the  Winter  Solstice)  and  all  died 
(were  put  to  death)  in  March  (the  Spring  Solstice). 

Between  Krishna  and  our  Jesus  no  less  than  five  hun- 
dred striking  points  of  resemblance  have  been  pointed 
out.  He  was  according  to  the  belief  of  his  followers,  an 
Avatar,  a  manifestation  of  the  divine.  His  mother  was 
Deva-Maya;  he  was  of  royal  descent;  was  born  in  a 
dungeon ;  was  attended  by  angels ;  his  life  was  sought  in 
his  childhood;  he  escaped  by  flight;  he  wrought  mira- 
cles; he  was  assaulted  by  devils,  etc.,  etc.  You  say, 
Krishna's  life  story  is  a  copy  of  that  of  Jesus — but 
Krishna  lived  several  centuries  before  the  time  of  Jesus. 

Mithra,  the  sun-god,  was  born  in  a  grotto — at  our 
Xmastide — and  was  called  Saviour.  Quexalcoatle,  ages 
before  the  time  of  Cortez,  was  worshipped  as  Saviour. 
He  was  born  at  Xmastide  and  crucified  between  two 
malefactors.  The  stories  of  the  life  of  Krishna,  Apollo, 
Baal,  Bacchus,  Ra  of  Egypt,  and  other  Saviours  is  strik- 
ingly like  our  Gospel  story. 

Many  customs  common  to  all  the  religions  are  directly 
traceable  to  the  sun  and  sun  worship  and  the  motions 
of  the  planets. 

Four  Great  Religions: — Hinduism,  Brahminism,  Budd- 
hism and  Christianity,  count  their  followers  by  scores 
and  hundreds  of  millions  and  have  vast  political  influ- 
ence, social  life,  great  literatures,  extended  histories  and 
vast  volumes  of  traditions. 

Brahmanism  is  theistic  and  monotheistic  and  its  hymns 
are  highly  praised  by  Max  Muller  and  other  competent 
critics.  God  is  styled  the  Almighty  Lord  of  Life — the 
King  of  the  Invisible  World — Light  and  Glory— Spirit— - 
Wisdom — Happiness — Everlasting — Incomparable.  He  is 
that  which  cannot  be  thought — yet  without  which  there 
can  be  no  thinking.  He  is  that  which  cannot  be  seen, 
yet  without  Him  there  can  be  no  seeing.  It  recognized 
the  fact  of  sin,  but  taught  no  forgiveness  of  sin.  Its 
fundamental  concept  was  Naturalism,  stern  and  in- 
exorable. 

Buddhism  is  Protestant  Brahmanism.  It  is  Rational- 
istic, humanitarian  and  some  assert  it  is  atheistic,  em- 
phasizing law.  It  taught  a  lofty  morality,  among  which 

54 


are  the  laws : — Thou  shalt  not  kill ;  Thou  shalt  not  steal ; 
Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery;  Thou  shalt  not  lie; 
Thou  shalt  not  become  intoxicated. 

It  is  a  system  of  Self -Salvation  through  right  belief, 
right  judgment,  right  language,  right  purpose,  right 
practice,  right  obedience,  right  memory  and  right  medi- 
tation. It  emphasizes  four  great  moralities  that  should 
receive  much  more  attention  in  the  Christian  Ethics 
than  they  do — duties  very  much  ignored  by  Christian 
peoples  generally: — obedience  and  respect  to  parents; 
kindness  to  children;  mercy  to  animals;  and  tolerance 
and  charity  toward  those  who  differ  with  us  in  opinion 
and  religion. 

Those  who  imagine  Christianity  is  the  only  religion 
worth  while,  who  look  upon  all  the  other  great  religions 
as  spurious  counterfeits  of  the  one  true  and  absolute 
religion,  will  have  many  surprises  awaiting  them  when 
they  read  the  history  of  these  religions  and  study  the 
lofty  morality  found  therein. 

Two  things  will  surprise  such  people:  First,  the  strik- 
ing resemblance  between  the  moral  precepts  of  the  so- 
called  heathen  religions  and  those  of  the  Bible  and 
Christianity;  and,  secondly,  the  lofty  character  of  the 
concepts  of  God  and  duty  held  by  the  teachers  of  these 
religions. 

Among  the  features  of  Buddhistic  morality  highly  em- 
phasized, and  not  sufficiently  expressed  and  practiced 
among  Christian  people,  we  may  mention :  Obedience  and 
Respect  to  Parents;  Care,  Kindness  and  Love  to  Chil- 
dren and  the  Poor;  Mercy  to  Animals;  Tolerance  and 
Charity  toward  those  differing  with  you  in  Religion. 

In  Edict  VI  on  the  Delhi  Pillar  is  engraved  Buddha's 
prayer  as  an  illustration  of  the  spirit  which  should  ani- 
mate all  his  followers: 

"I  pray  every  manner  of  prayer  for  those  who  differ 
from  me,  that  they,  following  my  proper  example,  may, 
with  me  attain  unto  eternal  salvation." 

Here  is  another  statement  of  Buddha's,  quoted,  re- 
vered and  emulated  by  his  followers: 

"A  man  who  foolishly  does  me  a  wrong,  I  will  return 
to  him  the  protection  of  my  ungrudging  love.  The  more 

55 


evil  comes  from  him  to  me,  the  more  good  shall  go  from 
me  to  him." 

Buddhism  taught  its  followers  to  invoke  the  dead.  It 
taught  that  all  men  were  brethren  and  should  be  as  one 
family. 

So  close  a  resemblance  has  been  noted  between  Chris- 
tian teaching  and  the  teaching  of  Plato  that  the  follow- 
ers of  each  have  long  disputed  whether  Plato  got  his 
doctrines  out  of  the  Old  Testament  or  the  New  Testa- 
ment teachers  borrowed  from  Plato.  Plato  taught  the 
supremacy  of  God  and  endowed  him  with  the  highest 
mental  and  moral  attributes.  He  taught  an  effective 
Providence  over  the  lives  of  men.  He  taught  the  doc- 
trine of  rewards  and  punishments.  He  taught  that  man 
was  made  in  the  image  of  God,  and  man's  chief  happi- 
ness and  good  were  found  in  becoming  like  unto  God. 
He  taught  no  forgiveness  of  sins,  no  marvelous  change 
of  man's  nature,  no  divine  redeemer. 

If  the  history  of  the  Essenes  is  true  there  is  very  lit- 
tle that  is  original  in  Christianity. 

The  morality  taught  in  many  of  the  great  religions 
and  that  of  poets  and  philosophers  is  in  many  cases  al- 
most identical  with  that  of  the  Christian  system. 

Confucius  taught  that  man's  duty  was  "simply  reci- 
procity." 

Pythagoras  taught  "the  love  of  all  for  all." 

Meander  taught  "To  live  is  not  to  live  for  one's  self 
alone;  let  us  help  one  another." 

Seneca  said:  "We  are  members  of  one  great  body.  We 
must  consider  we  are  born  for  the  good  of  the  whole." 

Lao-tse  taught:  'The  wise  never  return  an  injury  but 
with  benefits." 

Plato  said:  "It  is  never  right  to  return  an  injury." 

Tertullian,  one  of  the  Church  Fathers,  declared:  "The 
soul  is  an  older  authority  than  prophecy." 

Justin  Martyr,  one  of  the  Christian  Fathers,  declared: 
"Those  who  live  according  to  reason  are  Christians 
though  you  may  call  them  atheists." 

The  very  word,  philanthropy,  expressing  the  highest 
and  best  in  all  religions,  was  a  Greek  word  in  use  cen- 
turies before  Jesus  was  born. 

56 


Heathen  writers  wonder  why  if  Christianity  is  the  one 
true  religion  Christian  nations  manufacture  alcohol  and 
opium  and  demoralize  heathen  lands,  and  why  Christians 
are  less  kind  to  animals  and  more  warlike  than  the 
heathen. 

Minister  Wu  of  China,  in  this  country  years  ago, 
boasted  that  his  country  had  not  waged  an  aggressive 
warfare  for  four  thousand  years.  What  Christian  land 
could  boast  of  similar  peaceful  conduct? 

When  Bishop  Heber  in  India  urged  and  exhorted  that 
heroic  Indian  scholar,  reformer  and  religious  leader, 
Swami  Narain,  to  unite  with  the  Christian  church,  he 
answered:  "Nay — for  Christ  is  incarnated  not  in  one 
but  in  many." 


57 


THE  POETS  AND  SPIRITUALISM 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Long  before  the  Sun's  crest  is  above  the  horizon  in  the 
morning,  the  careful  observer  sees  foregleams  upon  the 
clouds  of  the  coming  Majesty.  Later  on  there  are  golden 
crests  on  the  mountain  peaks  and  then  the  hill  tops  are 
kissed  into  beauty,  and  soon  the  wondrous  revelation  of 
the  King  of  Day  over  the  eastern  horizon. 

So  it  is  with  new  truth  and  the  revelations  that  come 
from  the  unseen,  spirit  spheres.  The  tall  men,  "sun- 
crowned  who  live  above  the  fog/'  catch  the  first  rays  of 
coming  revelations.  The  clearest  intellects,  the  most 
intuitional  among  men,  first  receive  and  reflect  the  light 
of  the  new  dispensation  of  truth.  Then,  as  the  sunshine 
gradually  finds  its  way  into  the  valleys  and  lights  up  the 
ravines  of  the  landscape,  so  the  truth  gradually  perme- 
ates into  brain  and  heart  of  the  stolid  masses. 

The  poets  have  ever  lived  nearest  Nature's  heart,  they 
have  heard  her  voice,  interpreted  her  meaning,  reflected 
her  moods  and  sentiments,  and  seen  most  deeply  into  her 
wondrous  working. 

The  true  poet  is  the  prophet  of  nature  and  of  humani- 
ty, and  the  world  owes  an  unspeakable  debt  to  the  sweet 
singers  of  every  age.  How  they  have  charmed  away  the 
cares  and  sorrows  of  humanity !  How  have  they  exalted 
man's  spiritual  nature  and  given  expression  to  its  no- 
blest aspirations  and  achievements !  How  they  have  de- 
lighted us  with  their  visions  of  beauty,  of  truth,  and  of 
purity!  How  have  they  entranced  us  with  the  melody 
of  their  numbers  and  the  richness  and  grandeur  of  their 
conceptions!  They  have  sung  to  us  of  truth,  charity, 
love,  justice,  liberty  and  brotherhood,  and  have  helped 
as  have  no  other  class  to  spiritualize  the  race. 

With  few  exceptions  the  great  poets  have  been  Spir- 
itualists. Even  where  they  were  ignorant  of  the  special 

58 


doctrine  of  Modern  Spiritualism — spirit  return  and  com- 
munion— they  have  taught  the  spiritual  philosophy  and 
their  poetry  will  be  found  to  align  more  readily  with  the 
broad  and  liberal  religion  of  Spiritualism  than  with  any 
form  of  creedal  religion. 

Before  discussing  the  relation  of  Spiritualism  and 
Poetry,  a  few  introductory  words,  chiefly  by  way  of  defi- 
nition. 

Spiritualism  may  be  regarded  from  a  theoretical  or 
practical  standpoint.  Its  theory  implies  a  spiritual  basis 
and  origin  to  the  universe.  With  Pope  it  sings :  "All  are 
but  parts  of  one  stupendous  whole,  whose  body  nature 
is,  and  God  the  soul."  Man  is  a  microcosm.  Death  is 
the  birth  of  the  soul  into  higher  and  nobler  life.  Reason, 
love,  consciousness,  survive  the  tomb.  The  soul  entering 
on  its  new  career  beyond  the  grave,  can,  in  accordance 
with  laws  of  its  own  being,  impress  its  presence  and 
manifest  its  thoughts  and  desires  to  friends  on  the 
earth-plane. 

Practical  Spiritualism  is  the  application  of  all  demon- 
strated truth  to  right  living — resulting  in  health,  intel- 
lectuality, charity,  and  the  exercise  of  all  spiritual  gifts 
and  graces  in  life.  It  is  the  application  of  the  known 
laws  of  soul  life  to  spiritual  development  and  unf oldment. 
It  is  a  recognition  of  the  nearness  and  power  of  the 
spirit  world  and  an  attempt  more  or  less  successful  to 
cultivate  those  senses  of  the  soul  that  reveal  the  spir- 
itual universe  around  us.  Its  watchword  is  progression 
and  its  face  is  ever  "towards  the  heights." 

Multitudes  of  men  and  women  are  unconscious  spir- 
itualists. They  feel  as  Wordsworth  says,  "Heaven  lies 
all  around,"  and  are  dimly  conscious  at  times  that  the 
loved  and  lost  are  near  them  and  not  in  some  distant, 
far-away  heaven.  They  feel  the  breezes  that  blow  from 
the  spirit  land  and  though  they  "see  but  dimly  through 
the  mists  and  vapors,"  yet  in  their  hearts  they  recognize 
the  presence  and  power  of  the  unseen  spirit  realm  about 
them.  The  great  poets,  preachers,  authors,  inventors, 
artists,  and  leaders  of  men,  have  ever  felt  themselves 
instruments  of  some  power  and  intelligence  greater  than 
their  own. 

The  poets  have  ever  been  men  and  women  whose  spir- 

59 


itual  senses  were  developed  to  apprehend  the  spiritual 
realities  around  them.  Consciously  or  unconsciously  they 
have  sung  the  Philosophy  of  Spiritualism — and  many  of 
them  have  expressly  declared  its  central  doctrine  of 
spirit  return  and  communion.  Do  you  ask  me  for  proof 
of  this  statement?  Here  it  is: 

1.  Nearly  all  the  great  poets  have  expressly  confessed 
that  the  source  of  their  poetry  was  outside  themselves. 
What  mean  the  frequent  invocations  to  the  Muse — as  in 
Homer,  Milton  and  others — if  this  explanation  be  not 
accepted. 

2.  The  lofty  character  of  the  thought,  the  beauty  and 
grace  of  their  numbers,  and  the  divine  charm  of  their 
sentiments,  all  show  a  heavenly  origin. 

3.  The  true  poet  only  pours  forth  his  song  when  his 
lips  are  touched  with  the  live  coal  of  inspiration.     At 
other  times  he  walks  with  common  men  the  ordinary 
paths  of  thought  and  feeling.    Only  when  the  "afflatus" 
or  "Muse"  or  "spirit  control"  or  "inspiration"    (call  it 
what  you  will)  is  upon  him,  does  he  essay  his  flights  to 
the  realms  of  fantasy. 

4.  Like  the  prophet,  the  poet  is  subject  to  peculiar 
spiritual  experiences.    He  has  reveries,  trances,  visions, 
dreams,  and  is  ,at  times,  in  conscious  touch  with  what 
seems  distant  in  time  and  space. 

5.  Like  the  medium  or  psychic,  the  poet  has  ever  been 
dependent  on  harmonious  environment.    The  laws  that 
govern  poetic  development  are   the   laws   that  govern 
mediumship. 

6.  The  poet,  like  the  medium  or  prophet,   has  ever 
broken    loose    from    conventionalism    in    thought    and 
speech.    Like  mediums  they  have  been  men  apart  from 
the  masses.     They  have  generally  stood  outside  parties 
and  churches  and  been  liberals  in  thought,  reformers  in 
politics  and  heretics  in  religion. 

Where  will  you  find  a  stronger  arraignment  of  Phari- 
seeism  in  religion  than  is  found  in  the  good  Quaker 
poet,  Whittier?  Where  stronger  denunciation  of  the  re- 
lentless persecuting  spirit  (as  expressed  in  orthodoxy) 
than  is  found  in  Shelley's  Queen  Mab? 

Where  will  you  find  bitterer  satire,  or  more  effective 

60 


though  concealed  logic  than  in  Holy  Willie's  Prayer? 

"O  Thou  wha  in  the  heavens  dost  dwell, 
Wha,  is  it  pleases  best  thysel, 
Sends  ane  to  heaven  and  ten  to  hell, 

A'  for  thy  glory, 
And  no  for  ony  guid  or  ill 

The've  done  afore  thee; 

What  was  I,  or  my  generation, 
That  I  should  get  sic  exalfation? 
I  wha  deserve  sic  just  damnation 

For  broken  laws, 

Five  thousand  years  'fore  my  creation 
Through  Adam's  cause." 

Or,  belonging  to  our  own  day,  read  "The  Creed  That 
Is  to  Be"  by  Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox,  and  learn  that  "no 
priest-made  creed  can  alter  facts"  and  that  too  long 
humanity  has  "learned  upon  a  tortured  Christ." 

7.  But  the  poets  have  also  taught  much  expressly  and 
much  more  by  implication  of  the  central  truths  of  Spir- 
itualism. 

Even  in  the  hymnology  of  the  churches  there  is  true 
spiritual  philosophy,  despite  the  fact  that  much  of  it  is 
mere  doggerel  and  perpetuates  the  crudest  and  most 
absurd  conceptions  of  religious  ideas.  Take  by  way  of 
illustration  a  hymn  from  a  popular  sectarian  collection 
entitled  "The  Power  of  Prayer" 

"Oh,  wondrous  power  of  faithful  prayer! 
What  tongue  can  tell  the  Almighty  grace? 
God's  hands,  or  bound,  or  open  are, 
As  Moses  or  Elijah  prays. 
Let  Moses  in  the  spirit  groan, 
And  God  cries  out,  let  me  alone. 

Let  me  alone  that  all  my  wrath 
May  rise  the  wicked  to  consume" — 

but  enough.  Surely  hymns  embodying  such  conceptions 
of  an  angry  God  held  back  from  wreaking  his  vengeance 
on  his  children  by  the  more  merciful  efforts  of  men, 
ought  to  be  relegated  to  the  attic  of  worn-out  theology 
in  place  of  being  sung  into  the  minds  and  hearts  of  ten- 
der children !  Such  views  are  blasphemy,  a  libel  on  God, 
a  shame  and  disgrace  to  the  churches  which  promulgate 
them. 

61 


The  Bible  is  largely  a  book  of  poems  and  many  of 
these  are  beautiful  and  instructive  lessons  in  our  philoso- 
phy. As  we  have  already  stated  even  in  the  Church 
hymnology,  amidst  the  barren  desert  sands  of  the  crys- 
tallized opinions  of  past  ages,  there  are  delightful  oases 
of  pure  spiritual  thought  and  sentiment.  Take  that 
matchless  hymn  of  Frederick  Faber's — 

There's  a  wideness  in  God's  mercy 
Like  the  wideness  of  the  sea 

For  the  love  of  God  is  broader 
That  the  measure  of  man's  mind." 

In  the  light  and  love  with  which  such  a  song  floods 
mind  and  heart,  the  doctrines  of  an  angry  God,  of  an 
arbitrary  judge,  of  a  damnatory  decree,  of  an  everlast- 
ing hell,  disappear  as  mists  before  the  morning  sun. 

Take  another  of  our  modern  hymns:  "Lead  Kindly 
Light,  amid  the  encircling  gloom."  Students  of  the 
spiritual  philosophy  know  of  lights  that  appear  as  did 
those  at  Pentecost  in  the  circle  of  believers — of  other 
lights  apparent  only  to  the  spiritual  sight — of  lights 
that  glow  and  coruscate  about  the  form  of  angelic  vis- 
itors— and  can  understand  Newman's  hymn  as  a  thor- 
oughly spiritual  poem.  It  is  the  inner  soul  light,  the 
light  that  never  yet  shone  on  land  or  sea,  the  light  that 
Merlin  sought  in  that  poem  of  Tennyson  in  which  his 
own  soul  experiences  are  represented,  where  Merlin 
hastens  to  the  harbor,  launches  his  ship,  spreads  all  sail 
and  follows  "his  gleam,"  which  is  not  of  the  sunlight, 
not  of  the  moonlight,  not  of  the  starlight.  Spiritualists 
know  the  deeper  meaning  of  Newman's  verse — 
"And  in  the  morn  those  angel  faces  smile." 

Take  another:  "Nearer,  My  God,  To  Thee."  This  hymn 
is,  in  its  conception  and  outworking,  a  thoroughly  spir- 
itual one.  It  is  based  on  Jacob's  Dream  and  Vision 
and  teaches  spiritual  truths  throughout:  that  suffering 
spiritualizes  men;  that  souls  progress  in  knowledge  and 
spirituality  through  all  the  varied  life  experiences;  that 
in  sleep  we  may  get  nearer  to  God  (that  is,  to  the  spir- 
itual realms  and  existences),  and  that  beckoning  angels 
are  ever  ready  to  assist  us  in  rising  into  the  higher 
realms  of  thought  and  feeling. 

62 


None  of  our  modern  poets  has  more  distinctly  and 
effectively  taught  the  truths  of  our  system  than  Henry 
Wadsworth  Longfellow.  Spiritualism  makes  every  man 
the  architect  of  his  own  fortune,  the  builder  of  his  own 
future  habitation,  and  emphasizes  the  fact  that  our 
place  and  station  in  society  are  nothing  but  incidents — 
entirely  unimportant — but  the  spirit  which  we  cultivate 
and  in  which  we  live  is  everything.  "Not  what  we  do, 
but  how  we  do  it."  Where  can  you  find  this  grand  doc- 
trine of  democracy,  this  teacher  of  human  brotherhood, 
this  dignifier  of  humble,  honest  and  pure  life,  more 
beautifully  set  forth  than  in  "The  Builders." 

All  are  architects  of  Fate, 

Working  in  these  walls  of  Time, 
Some  with  massive  deeds  and  great, 

Some  with  ornaments  of  rhyme. 

Nothing  useless  is,  or  low; 

Each  thing  in  its  place  is  best; 
And  what  seems  but  idle  show 

Strengthens  and  supports  the  rest. 

In  the  elder  days  of  Art, 

Builders  wrought  with  greatest  care 
Each  minute  and  unseen  part 

For  the  Gods  see  every  where. 

Let  us  do  our  work  as  well, 

Both  the  unseen  and  the  seen; 
Make  the  house,  where  Gods  may  dwell, 

Beautiful,  entire,  and  clean. 

The  true  path  of  soul  progress  for  this  life,  and  by 
implication  for  the  next,  is  laid  out  in  "Excelsior"  which 
in  title,  spirit,  aspiration  and  continued  progress  amidst 
difficulties  is  a  compend  of  the  spiritual  philosophy. 

How  forcibly,  too,  one  of  the  main  tenets  of  Spiritual- 
ism, that  whatever  a  man  sows  he  must  reap,  that  deeds 
cannot  be  annulled  or  their  consequences  obliterated, 
that  all  our  words  and  deeds  are  irrevocable,  is  brought 
out  in  "The  Arrow  and  the  Song."  The  arrow  shot  into 
the  air,  and  lost  to  sight,  is  found  "long  afterward"  in 
the  heart  of  an  oak — so  no  deed  is  lost ;  and  as  the  song 
breathed  into  the  air  is  found  long  afterwards  in  the 
heart  of  a  friend,  so  every  act  reaps  recompense. 

63 


In  the  "Psalm  of  Life"  we  have  the  soul's  survival  of 
death,  and  the  great  fact  that  every  life  has  its  lessons 
and  proclaims  a  Gospel  to  men,  set  forth  in  forcible 
numbers.  His  poem  "Resignation"  is  one  of  the  sweet- 
est messages  ever  breathed  by  poetic  lips  upon  the  ears 
of  the  afflicted.  It  is  the  Nectar  of  Divine  Consolation 
wrung  out  of  his  crushed  heart  after  the  loss  of  a  child. 
In  a  similar  hour  of  grief  that  overshadowed  my  home 
I  found  this  poem  the  first  inspired  word  to  which  my 
soul  instinctively  turned. 

In  "Footsteps  of  Angels" — a  sort  of  waking  trance — 
he  sees  "the  forms  of  the  departed  enter  at  the  open 
door"  and  realizes  the  companionship  of  loved  and  lost 
friends  and  comprehends  the  unuttered  desires  and 
blessings  of  his  angel  visitors. 

In  "Haunted  Houses"  he  declares: 

All  houses  wherein  men  have  lived  and  died 
Are  haunted  houses.   Through  the  open  doors, 

The  harmless  phantoms  on  their  errands  glide, 
With  feet  that  make  no  sound  upon  the  floor. 

There  are  more  guests  at  table  than  the  host 

Invited:    the  illuminated  hall 
Is  thronged  with  quiet,  inoffensive  ghosts 

As  silent  as  the  pictures  on  the  wall. 

The  spirit-world  around  this  world  of  sense 
Floats  like  an  atmosphere,  and  everywhere 

Wafts  thro'  these  earthly  mists  and  vapors  dense 
A  vital  breath  of  more  etherial  air. 

Sandolphon,  the  Angel  of  Prayer,  who  changes  the 
prayers  of  the  saints  into  flowers  in  his  hand,  expresses 
in  part  that  divine  Alchemy  taught  in  Spiritualism,  by 
which  pure  desires  and  thoughts  are  changed  into  beauty 
of  character  and  environment. 

Tennyson,  however,  is  the  great  Prophet  of  Spiritual- 
ism in  our  day.  The  sweetest  singer  of  our  times  has 
been  the  clearest  in  his  enunciation  of  the  truths  of  our 
philosophy — "In  Memoriam"  is  a  Gospel  of  Spiritualism. 
It  expresses  the  universal  longing  for  spiritual  com- 
munion, and  it  lays  bare  the  psychic  experiences  of  the 
poet  which  he  describes  in  language  well  understood  by 
every  spiritual  person.  His  recent  biography  contains 

64 


facts  concerning  his  own  peculiar  clairvoyant  trances 
which  show  that  he  was  a  seer  and  like  all  the  prophets 
had  his  "peculiar"  experiences.  Tennyson  had  the  deep- 
est conviction  of  the  reality  of  spiritual  things  and  often 
felt  that  the  material  was  the  vague  and  shadowy  and 
unsubstantial,  while  the  spiritual  was  the  permanent 
and  unchanging.  "In  Memoriam"  is  the  outpouring  of  a 
human  heart  in  intensest  longing  for  and  measurable 
realization  of  the  "Communion  of  Saints."  It  is  inimi- 
tably sweet,  tender  and  beautiful  and  will  live  as  long 
as  love  and  friendship  abide.  Addressing  his  friend  Hal- 
lam  he  says: — 

"And  doubtless,  unto  thee  is  given 
A  life  that  bears  immortal  fruit 
In  such  great  offices  as  suit 
The  full  grown  energies  of  heaven." 

He  was  never  identified  in  any  public  manner  with 
Spiritualism,  but  he  often  expressed  to  friends  his  belief 
in  its  central  truths  and  he  sang  its  higher  purer  Gospel. 
Prof.  Knight  relates  in  Blackwood  how  in  conversation 
with  him  Tennyson  told  many  a  tale  of  spirit  return  and 
expressed  his  belief  in  the  truth  of  the  stories  related. 
Speaking  of  the  Intercommunion  of  Saints,  he  said: — 

"I  do  not  see  why  its  central  truth  is  untenable.  If  we  would 
think  about  this  truth,  it  would  become  very  natural  and  reasonable 
to  us.  Why  should  those  who  have  gone  before,  not  surround  and 
minister  to  us,  as  legions  of  angels  surround  and  minister  to  our 
Lord." 

He  had  clairvoyant  trances  so  deep  that  he  suffered 
partial  or  entire  loss  of  consciousness  to  physical  sur- 
roundings and  in  which  he  had  a  very  vivid  sense  of 
spiritual  things — sometimes  at  a  distance — and  awaking 
out  of  these  trances,  like  Wordsworth,  the  Poet,  he  fre- 
quently would  have  to  grasp  something  in  his  hand  to 
assure  himself  of  its  real  material  existence. 

In  these  states,  like  Paul,  he  hardly  knew  whether  he 
was  in  the  body,  or  out  of  the  body  (in  the  astral) .  His 
son  relates  this  statement  from  him:  "Yes,  it  is  true 
that  there  are  moments  when  the  flesh  is  nothing  to  me, 
when  I  feel  and  know  the  flesh  to  be  the  vision,  God  and 
the  spiritual  the  only  real  and  true.  Depend  upon  it  the 

65 


spiritual  is  the  real.  It  belongs  to  me  more  than  the 
hand  and  the  foot.  You  may  tell  me  that  my  hand  and 
my  foot  are  only  imaginary  symbols  of  my  existence, 
I  could  believe  you;  but  you  never,  never  can  convince 
me  that  the  T  is  not  an  eternal  reality,  and  that  the 
spiritual  is  not  the  true  and  real  part  of  me." 

In  1887  he  wrote  to  the  Queen  a  letter  in  which  oc- 
curs this  extract: — 

"Yet  if  the  dead,  as  I  have  often  felt,  tho  silent  be  more  living 
than  the  living;  and  linger  about  the  planet  in  which  their  earth 
life  was  passed,  then  they,  while  we  are  lamenting  that  they  are 
not  at  our  side,  may  still  be  with  us;  and  the  husband,  the 
daughter  and  the  son,  lost  by  your  Majesty,  may  rejoice  when  the 
people  shout  the  name  of  their  Queen." 

Where  will  you  find  more  beautiful  poetic  setting  of 
a  trance  experience  of  soul  communion  with  "the  dead" 
than  in  these  lines: — 

"So  word  by  word,  and  line  by  line, 
The  dead  man  touch'd  me  from  the  past, 
And  all  at  once  it  seem'd  at  last 
The  living  soul  was  flashed  on  mine. 

And  mine  in  this  was  wound  and  whirl'd 
About  empyreal  heights  of  thought, 
And  come  on  that  which  is,  and  caught 
The  deep  pulsations  of  the  world. 

Eonian  music  measuring  out 
The  steps  of  Time — the  shocks  of  Chance — 
The  blows  of  Death.    At  length  my  trance 
Was  cancell'd,  stricken  thro'  with  doubt. 

Vague  words  but  ah,  how  hard  to  frame 
In  matter,-— moulded  forms  of  speech, 
Or  ev'n  for  intellect  to  reach 
Thro'  memory  that  which  I  become." 

Tennyson  taught  the  recognized  Truths  of  Spiritual- 
ism. 

1.  The  soul  of  the  individual,  as  well  as  humanity  in 
general,  is  mounting  upward  in  endless  progression: 

"Yet  I  doubt  not,  thro'  the  ages  one  unceasing  purpose  runs, 
And  the  thoughts  of  men  are  widen'd  with  the  process  of  the 
suns." 

66 


And  again: 

"Eternal  process  moving  on, 

From  state  to  state  the  spirit  walks." 

And  again: 

"I  hold  it  truth,  with  him  who  sings 
To  one  clear  harp  in  divers  tones 
That  men  may  rise  on  stepping  stones 
Of  their  dead  selves,  to  higher  things." 

2.  There  is  an  honest  doubt  as  well  as  an  honest  faith 
---and  doubt  is  oft  the  true  pathway  to  nobler  faith  and 
richer  knowledge. 

"You  say,  but  with  no  touch  of  scorn, 
Sweet-hearted,  you,  whose  light  blue  eyes 
Are  tender  over  drowning  flies, 
You  tell  me,  doubt  is  Devil-born. 

I  know  not:    one  indeed  I  knew 
In  many  a  subtle  question  versed, 
Who  touch'd  a  jarring  lyre  at  first, 
But  ever  strove  to  make  it  true: 

Perplexed  in  faith,  but  pure  in  deeds, 
At  last  he  beat  his  music  out. 
There  lives  more  faith  in  honest  doubt, 
Believe  me,  than  in  half  the  creeds." 

3.  Our  earthly  losses  are  all  spiritual  gains.    By  di- 
vine Alchemy  inwrought  in  the  laws  of  our  being  and 
worked  out  evolutionary  every  trial,  loss,  suffering  and 
hard  life  experiences  is  transmuted  into  spiritual  riches. 
The  apparently  evil  is  real  good — only  undeveloped. 

"I  hold  it  true,  what'er  befall; 
I  feel  it  when  I  sorrow  most; 
'Tis  better  to  have  loved  and  lost 
Than  never  to  have  loved  at  all." 

4.  Old  forms  of  thought,   belief,   and  sectarianism 
must  give  way  to  the  New  Thought,  Nobler  Sentiments 
and  Diviner  Manhood  of  this  age. 

Hear  him,  ye  croakers  for  the  "good  old  times"  of 
your  fathers,  ye  creed  worshipers  and  believers  in  the 
depravity  of  human  nature,  as  he  sings  of  the  "common 
love  of  good"  in  what  I  call 

67 


THE  NEW  GOSPEL  OF  THIS  AGE 

Ring  out  the  feud  of  rich  and  poor 
For  those  that  here  we  see  no  more 
Ring  out  the  feud  of  rich  and  poor 
Ring  in  redress  for  all  mankind. 

Ring  out  a  slowly  dying  cause, 
And  ancient  forms  of  party  strife 
Ring  in  the  nobler  modes  of  life, 
With  sweeter  manners,  purer  laws. 

Ring  out  the  want,  the  care,  the  sin, 
The  faithless  coldness  of  the  times; 
Ring  out,  ring  out  my  mournful  rhymes 
But  ring  the  fuller  minstrel  in. 

Ring  out  false  pride  in  place  and  blood, 
The  civic  slander  and  the  spite; 
Ring  in  the  love  of  truth  and  right, 
Ring  in  the  common  love  of  good. 

Ring  out  old  shapes  of  foul  disease; 
Ring  out  the  narrowing  lust  of  gold; 
Ring  out  the  thousand  wars  of  old, 
Ring  in  the  thousand  years  of  peace. 

Ring  in  the  valiant  man  and  free, 
The  larger  heart,  the  kindlier  hand; 
Ring  out  the  darkness  of  the  land, 
Ring  in  the  Christ  that  is  to  be. 

5.  The  old  creeds  pronouncing  man  accursed  and  con- 
signing him  to  endless  misery  must  give  way  to  man's 
realization  of  his  own  divinity  and  to  the  nobler  opti- 
mism of  our  times. 

While  the  churches  were  still  generally  pronouncing 
the  earth  and  man  accursed  through  Adam's  transgres- 
sion and  teaching  that  the  multitude  was  in  the  way  to 
endless  death,  Tennyson  sang  to  the  world  this 

GLORIUS  OPTIMISM 

Oh  yet  we  trust  that  somehow  good 
Will  be  the  final  goal  of  ill, 
To  pangs  of  nature,  sins  of  will, 
Defects  of  doubt,  and  taints  of  blood; 

68 


That  nothing  walks  with  aimless  feet; 
That  not  one  life  shall  be  destroyed, 
Or  cast  as  rubbish  to  the  void, 
When  God  hath  made  the  pile  complete; 

That  not  a  worm  is  cloven  in  vain: 
That  not  a  moth  with  vain  desire 
Is  shrivelled  in  a  fruitless  fire, 
Or  but  subserves  another's  gain. 

Behold  we  know  not  anything; 
I  can  but  trust  that  good  shall  fall 
At  last— far  off— at  last,  to  all, 
And  every  winter  change  to  spring. 

Tell  me,  is  not  "In  Memoriam,"  with  its  blessed  Opti- 
mism a  better  Gospel  for  today  than  Jeremiah's  Lamen- 
tations? Is  not  Tennyson,  with  his  sweet  Evangel  that 
"good  shall  be  the  final  goal  of  ill,"  that  "not  one  ilfe 
shall  be  destroyed,"  that  every  winter  shall  "change  to 
spring" — a  better  Teacher  for  today  than  Paul  with  his 
doctrine  of  depravity,  of  election  and  predestination  and 
the  damnation  of  all  non-elect? 


69 


NEW  THOUGHT,  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 
AND  SPIRITUALISM 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

I  am  asked  to  compare  and  contrast  the  Teachings  and 
Claims  of  New  Thought,  Christian  Science  and  Spirit- 
ualism. 

I  hope  to  do  so  with  appreciation  of  whatever  is  good 
in  each  of  them,  and  with  a  candid  recognition  of  what 
may  appear  to  me  as  their  limitations  and  errors. 

To  begin  with,  they  all  belong  to  the  Great  Liberal 
Movement  of  Human  Thought  and,  in  their  teachings 
and  spirit,  have  a  good  deal  in  common.  They  are  all 
outside  the  pale  of  Orthodoxy,  so  far  as  religion  is  con- 
cerned. They  are  all  streams  from  one  great  Fountain 
Head  of  liberal  thought,  which  began  with  that  master- 
ly work  of  Andrew  Jackson  Davis  in  1847 :  "Principles  of 
Nature,  Her  Divine  Revelations,"  containing  the  an- 
nouncement of  a  new  age,  the  publication  of  a  new  Phil- 
osophy of  Life  and  the  Gospel  of  a  new  Religion  for  the 
world.  The  Philosophy  of  Spiritualism  thus  preceded  its 
Phenomena,  as  history  dates  Modern  Spiritualism  from 
March  31st,  1848,  the  night  on  which  a  code  of  communi- 
cation between  the  two  realms  was  discovered.  Almost 
immediately  after  the  marvelous  manifestations  at 
Hydesville  came  Davis*  Great  Harmonia  in  five  volumes, 
followed  by  "The  Origin  of  Species"  by  Darwin,  and  his 
co-discoverer,  Alfred  Russell  Wallace,  announcing  the 
principle  of  evolution.  Then  followed  a  book  "Dealings 
With  the  Dead,"  about  1860,  by  Pascall  Randolph,  which 
contained  many  paragraphs  and  passages  strikingly  sim- 
ilar, in  fact  almost  verbatim,  to  others  found  in  "Science 
and  Health"  published  in  1875.  Following  this  book, 
"Dealings  With  the  Dead,"  came  the  work  of  Dr.  Quimby 
as  a  metaphysical  healer  and  teacher,  and  Evans  with 
his  Mind  Cure.  Mrs.  Eddy,  as  patient  and  pupil  of  Dr. 

70 


Quimby,  taught  his  lessons  and  gave  him  credit  for 
them  at  the  time,  and  afterwards  embodied  them  with 
much  other  matter,  drawn  from  a  great  variety  of 
sources,  in  "Science  and  Health"  in  1875. 

In  their  origin  and  up  to  a  certain  point  in  their 
course,  New  Thought,  Christian  Science  and  Spiritual- 
ism are  all  parts  of  one  Progressive  Movement,  but 
afterwards  became  marked  with  strong  contrasts  and 
many  points  of  opposition. 

THE  COMMON  GROUND  OCCUPIED 

First,  they  all  reject  the  Old  Theology.  They  each 
teach  the  Wider  Hope  for  humanity.  Practically,  all 
New  Thought  Teachers  and  Christian  Scientists  would 
endorse  our  N.  S.  A.  declaration  that  "the  door  of  re- 
formation is  never  closed,  either  in  this  world  or  the 
next."  All  of  these  movements  stand  solidly  against  sal- 
vation by  vicarious  atonement.  They  are  one  in  reject- 
ing the  absurdities  and  abominations  of  the  Orthodox 
Scheme  of  Redemption.  Practically,  they  all  believe  in 
Salvation  by  Character  and  not  by  "blood,"  or  "faith" 
or  "sacraments."  Another  point  of  agreement  is  that  all 
three  movements  stand  solidly  in  favor  of  Metaphysical 
Healing  and  against  Medical  Monopoly.  Historically 
they  are  related  and  may  fittingly  be  compared  to  the 
root,  the  trunk,  the  branches  and  the  fruitage  of  one 
Great  Tree.  They  are  products  of  one  great  enlarge- 
ment of  Human  Thought,  or,  shall  we  say,  outpouring 
of  the  Spirit,  which  has  come  to  America  within  the 
last  75  years.  Spiritualism  may  justly  be  regarded  as 
the  Great  Tidal  Wave  of  new  thought,  and  new  theology 
and  new  religion,  spreading  over  America,  out  of  which 
sprang  Organized  Christian  Science  and  the  Great  Meta- 
physical Movement  of  today.  Spiritualistic  propaganda 
made  Christian  Science  possible.  Christian  Science,  it  is 
true,  was  organized  as  a  religious  movement  before  Spir- 
itualism, but  the  ground  had  been  prepared  for  it,  the 
public  interest  created,  the  wider  and  more  liberal 
thought  had  been  promulgated,  and,  without  this,  Chris- 
tian Science  and  New  Thought  could  not  have  been 
launched.  The  Founder  of  Christian  Science,  once  a 

71 


practicing  medium  in  Boston,  owed  her  initiation  into 
religious  work,  her  inspiration  and  her  success  to  Spir- 
itualism and  the  teachings  it  had  inspired. 

When  one  begins  to  carefully  study  New  Thought, 
Christian  Science  and  Spiritualism,  he  finds  many  of  the 
same  teachings,  under  different  names  and  with  differ- 
ent interpretations.  He  finds  many  basic  facts  and  prin- 
ciples alike,  recognized  by  each  movement,  but  with  new 
names  for  old  truths  and  new  philosophy  for  the  same 
old  facts.  The  New  Thought,  the  New  Theology,  the 
New  Healing,  the  New  Philosophy,  is  the  old  revamped 
and  baptized  with  a  new  name. 

Modern  Spiritualism  is  the  old  Spiritualism  of  the 
Prophets  and  the  Apostles,  a  duplication  of  the  Spiritu- 
alism of  the  New  Testament,  with  its  trances,  visions, 
inspirations,  angelic  messages,  prophecies  and  "Gifts  of 
the  Spirit,"  with  adaptations  and  modifications  suited  to 
this  age. 

The  New  Thought,  with  its  teachings  of  the  power  of 
thought,  mental  healing,  optimism,  suggestion  and  suc- 
cess, is  as  old  as  Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle  and  Pythago- 
ras, and  is  simply  an  elaboration  of  principles  recognized 
in  earlier  times  and  more  or  less  fully  expounded  in  the 
Bibles  of  the  past  and  in  the  works  of  Andrew  Jackson 
Davis. 

Christian  Science,  which  is  pure  Idealism  as  a  Philoso- 
phy, and  pure  Pantheism  as  a  religion,  is  as  old  as  Ber- 
keley. "Science  and  Health"  is  a  compilation  from 
Berkeley  and  Swedenborg,  from  "Dealings  With  the 
Dead,"  and  from  Dr.  Quimby,  and  Evans'  Mind  Cure. 
There  are  original  features,  it  is  true,  but  they  are 
not  numerous  or  important. 

THE  NEW  THOUGHT  TEACHING 

The  New  Thought  Teaching  of  Man's  Greatness  and 
the  unlimited  powers  of  thought  and  suggestion,  of  will 
power  and  imagination,  are  all  found  germinally  in  the 
philosophers  of  the  past,  and,  especially,  in  the  Great 
Harmonia  of  Andrew  Jackson  Davis.  In  the  Thinker, 
the  Seer,  the  Physician  of  Davis  are  found  all  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  New  Thought  Teaching,  not  so  fully  elab- 

72 


orated,  it  is  true,  but  fundamentally  stated.  No  philoso- 
pher has  given  the  world  a  nobler  concept  of  the  dignity 
of  man  or  of  the  latent  possibilities  locked  up  in  the  hu- 
man soul,  than  Andrew  Jackson  Davis.  Here  New 
Thought  and  the  Spiritual  Philosophy  are  one.  They 
are  one,  also,  in  their  teaching  of  metaphysical  healing. 
They  are  one  in  their  glorious  optimism.  They  are  one 
in  their  wider  hope  for  humanity,  in  their  belief  in  the 
final  salvation  of  all  men.  They  are  one  in  their  teach- 
ings of  the  laws  of  harmony  and  the  essentials  of  happi- 
ness and  success  in  life. 

The  New  Thought  Teaching  emphasizes  the  greatness 
of  man.  Teaches  him  self-respect  and  self-reliance; 
shows  him  how  to  unfold  his  own  powers;  cultivates  in 
him  hope,  cheer,  optimism,  courage  and  will  power;  in- 
structs him  how  to  heal  himself;  how  to  snatch  victory 
from  defeat;  how  to  be  happy  in  adverse  conditions; 
how  to  get  Poise  and  Power  and  Beauty  of  Character. 
It  is  a  tonic  in  human  life,  a  spur,  an  inspiration  and 
guide  to  health,  happiness  and  success.  It  comes  to  mul- 
titudes with  a  refreshment  as  pleasant  and  salutary  as 
an  ocean  breeze  to  one  wearied  with  desert  travel.  But, 
with  all  its  excellencies,  the  New  Thought  has  its  serious 
limitations. 

LIMITATIONS  OF  THE  NEW  THOUGHT 

As  a  tonic  to  the  masses  and  as  a  spur  and  inspiration 
to  multitudes  whose  religion  is  filled  with  "other-world- 
liness"  and  devoid  of  those  practical  teachings  which 
lead  to  progress,  growth  and  success,  the  New  Thought 
propaganda  is  of  great  value.  As  a  substitute  for  Re- 
ligion, or  a  Gospel  in  itself,  or  as  a  movement  fitted  to 
replace  the  Churches,  it  falls  lamentably  short.  It  is, 
at  best,  but  half  a  gospel.  It  is  a  gospel  of  earth,  not 
heaven,  of  time  not  of  eternity,  a  gospel  whose  main 
purview  is  of  earthly  values  and  acquirements  and  not 
of  the  life  unending,  and  of  spirituality. 

Doubtless  there  are  New  Thought  Teachers  who  take 
a  wider  and  more  spiritual  view  of  life  than  the  majority 
of  their  number,  and  in  their  teachings  enforce  the  de- 
velopment of  man's  spiritual  faculties  and  give  instruc- 

73 


tion  and  inspiration  to  men  in  reaching  spiritual  as  well 
as  physical  health — spiritual  riches  as  well  as  material 
riches — and  thus  present  a  nobler  and  fuller  gospel  to 
mankind. 

But,  speaking  generally,  New  Thought  Teaching  takes 
in  its  compass  life  between  the  cradle  and  the  grave.  It 
looks  on  man  as  intellect  rather  than  spirit.  It  asserts, 
in  much  of  its  literature,  that  "the  mind  is  the  man" — 
which  is  a  fallacy — for  the  mind  is  a  faculty  of  the  man 
and  not  the  man  himself.  Its  objective — to  use  a  mili- 
tary phrase — is  health,  happiness  and  success,  and  these 
may  be  obtained  in  their  ordinary  meaning,  and  yet  the 
man  who  obtains  them  may  still  be  far  from  the  king- 
dom of  heaven. 

The  New  Thought  is,  therefore,  no  substitute  what- 
ever for  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  which  was  one  of  Spiritual 
values — one  of  the  noblest  ethical  systems  known — and 
certainly  did  not  make  its  objective  worldly  good,  but 
spiritual  attainment. 

It  may  be  objected  by  many  New  Thought  Teachers 
that  I  am  doing  scant  justice  to  their  movement.  Let 
us  hear  their  objection  stated.  It  is  this: 

"You  criticize  the  New  Thought  Movement  for  being 
earthly  in  its  aims  and  limiting  its  vision  and  its  teach- 
ings to  earth  and  time,  rather  than  to  spiritual  inter- 
ests and  the  unending  life.  Is  it  not  true  that  the  proper 
living  of  the  earth  life  is  the  best  possible  preparation 
for  the  ilfe  hereafter?"  We  not  only  believe  that  the 
best  possible  preparation  for  the  future  life  is  the  proper 
living  of  this  life,  but  we  assert  most  boldly  that  any 
professed  system  of  ethics  taught  as  a  preparation  for 
the  after  life  which  does  not  include  a  clear  recognition 
and  a  faithful  discharge  of  life's  duties  here,  is  utterly 
valueless. 

But  what  constitutes  a  proper  living  of  the  earth  life  ? 
Who  lives  the  earth  life  properly?  Can  any  one  get  a 
right  view  of  life — its  value,  its  responsibilities,  its  op- 
portunities, who  is  ignorant  of  or  indifferent  to  the  life 
unending?  What  gives  to  life  its  value,  its  responsibili- 
ty? What  makes  life  worth  the  living?  What  gives  the 
mightiest  motive  to  good  conduct?  What  makes  wrong 
action  so  ruinous,  so  disastrous,  so  deplorable?  Ah,  it  is 

74 


the  life  unending — the  life  that  shall  stretch  out  in  un- 
counted billions  of  years  after  the  sun  grows  cold  and 
the  moon  grows  old.  No  one  has  the  right  perspective 
in  life,  no  one  can  be  duly  impressed  with  its  value,  no 
one  can  have  the  mightiest  incentive  to  right  living, 
without  a  knowledge  of  Immortality. 

Notice  here  the  Contrast  between  New  Thought  and 
the  Gospel  of  Jesus.  He  came  with  two  great  purposes 
in  view — to  bring  life  and  immortality  to  light  and  then, 
on  this  foundation,  to  build  his  ethical  system  and  illus- 
trate in  himself  the  heights  to  which  humanity  could 
rise.  He  demonstrated  immortality.  Cavil,  if  you  will, 
and  say  he  only  demonstrated  the  continuity  of  life. 
Quite  true;  that  is  all  that  can  be  demonstrated  by  re- 
appearance from  the  dead.  But,  practically,  that  is  a 
demonstration  of  immortality,  for  no  one  will  doubt, 
after  such  a  demonstration,  that  death  cannot  destroy 
life,  that  death  is  an  event  in  life,  that  man  lives  on 
forever.  This  demonstration  was  needed  in  the  times  of 
Jesus,  and  it  is  needed  now.  All  ages,  all  nations  need  it. 
Yet  there  are  times  when  the  world  specially  needs  it. 
And  this  is  one  of  those  great  crises  in  human  history 
in  which,  as  never  before,  men  need  to  know  their  im- 
mortality. It  is  needed  today  as  a  foundation,  principle 
and  mainspring,  in  all  religious  work  and  in  all  religious 
education.  Today  the  world  is  in  greater  need  than  ever 
before  of  this  demonstration.  Past  ages  cannot  supply 
the  needs  of  today.  We  need  our  daily  manna  from 
heaven. 

A  religion  or  a  cult,  therefore,  that  is  without  this 
demonstration,  that  is  silent  on  the  after  ilfe,  that  has 
no  knowledge  of  present-day  resurrections,  of  present- 
day  appearances  of  spirits  and  angels,  no  knowledge  of, 
or  intercourse  with,  the  great  spirit  realm  (etheric), 
which  Longfellow  declares 

"Floats  about  this  world  of  sense 
like  an  atmosphere," 

is  surely  no  Gospel  for  the  times,  however  excellent  its 
practical  teachings  may  be.  No  teaching  can  claim  to 
be  even  a  Gospel  of  the  present  life  which  does  not  an- 
swer the  deep  problems  of  man's  intellect  and  supply  the 
present  longings  of  man's  heart. 

75 


New  Thought,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  read  and 
judge  its  teachings,  is  practically  silent  on  the  subject 
of  death  and  the  after  life.  It  has  no  philosophy  of 
death  that  adequately  explains  the  death  process  and 
the  facts  of  Psychic  Research.  It  is  mute,  and  seem- 
ingly indifferent  to  the  questions  of  men  concerning  in- 
tercommunion between  the  two  worlds.  It  recognizes  the 
influence  of  mortal  mind  upon  mortals  (telepathy),  but 
it  is  dumb  and  unresponsive  as  to  the  influence  of  de- 
carnate  intelligences  on  mortals.  It  is  voiceless  as  to 
whether  or  not  our  departed  friends  visit  us,  where  they 
are,  how  engaged,  and  it  is  silent  on  the  thousand  and 
one  questions  rational  minds  ask  themselves  about  the 
future  life.  Unfortunately,  too,  many  New  Thought 
Teachers  frown  upon  all  efforts  to  prove  and  to  improve 
communications  between  the  two  realms  of  life. 

Surely  a  movement  that  seemingly  ignores  the  work 
of  Psychic  Research  for  nearly  forty  years,  embracing, 
as  it  does,  the  Scholarship  of  Europe  and  America,  that 
is  silent  in  the  presence  of  a  world-wide  demand  to  know 
whether  real  intercourse  exists  between  mortals  and 
spirits,  that  is  without  a  demonstration  of  life's  con- 
tinuity and  without  comfort  for  a  world  mourning  its 
millions  dead;  surely  such  a  movement  cannot  be  a  Re- 
ligion or  a  Gospel  for  the  world.  And  so,  to  our  New 
Thought  brothers  on  the  path  of  progress  we  would  say : 
"Come  and  see.  You  are  on  the  way;  you  are  doing 
good ;  your  teachings  are  good  so  far  as  they  go ;  search, 
investigate,  prove  and  then  preach  the  fuller  Gospel 
which  the  world  needs  today." 

CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

One  of  the  great  marvels  of  pur  times  has  been  the 
phenomenal  growth  of  the  Christian  Science  organiza- 
tion. Probably  the  world's  history  has  not  a  parallel  to 
it.  It  has  extended  to  all  lands  and  excited  attention 
and  interest  on  the  part  of  the  whole  religious  world.  It 
is  a  great  movement,  not  only  in  numbers  and  wealth, 
but  great  in  its  influence  on  the  thought  of  the  world 
and  on  the  lives  of  its  followers.  Its  growth  and  popu- 
larity continue  and  it  bids  fair  to  eclipse  the  success  of 
the  past  by  its  greater  success  in  the  future. 

76 


Christian  Science,  between  1890  and  1906,  grew  over 
900  per  cent.  Only  27  per  cent  of  its  members  are  men. 
This  is  about  the  same  proportion  as  in  other  churches. 
Sturdy  old  New  England  is  not  good  soil  for  Christian 
Science,  neither  is  the  Orthodox  South.  The  Middle 
West  and  the  Pacific  Slope  are  where  its  great  strength 
is  found.  The  West  is  fond  of  optimism  and  compla- 
cency, and  Christian  Science  has  both.  As  there  is  no 
evil  in  the  world;  as  evil,  in  fact,  does  not  exist,  there 
is  no  reason  why  we  should  not  be  happy  and  very  com- 
placent, even  when  the  foolish  people  of  the  world,  in 
"the  error  of  their  mortal  minds,"  believe  war  is  a  real 
evil,  and  are  fretting  over  the  death  of  a  paltry  25,- 
000,000  men. 

The  Mother  Church  of  Christian  Science,  at  Boston, 
has  assets  of  about  $7,000,000,  and  the  Christian  Science 
Monthly  has  60  pages  of  Christian  Science  Healers, 
about  10,000  in  all.  An  army  of  10,000  whose  profes- 
sion is  to  heal  disease  and  remove  evil  which  do  not 
exist. 

Another  of  the  optimistic  features  of  Christian  Sci- 
ence is  that  there  is  no  sin.  Man  is  incapable  of  sin.  Sin 
is  another  of  the  errors  of  mortal  mind.  Either  there 
is  no  law  in  the  universe,  or,  if  there  is,  man  is  incapa- 
ble of  violating  it.  Surely,  this  relieves  the  world  of  a 
vast  amount  of  trouble  and  anxiety. 

And  there  is  no  personal  devil,  according  to  Mrs. 
Eddy,  and,  for  once,  I  am  in  accord  with  her.  Impartial 
history,  however,  will  show  that  Mrs.  Eddy  most  clearly 
recognized  evil  in  the  world ;  that  her  own  life  is  a  strik- 
ing refutation  of  the  doctrine  that  there  is  no  sin;  and 
that,  if  the  world  is  without  a  personal  devil,  Mrs.  Eddy, 
in  her  dogma  of  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism — a  revival 
of  the  old  Witchcraft  doctrine  of  Europe  and  of  Salem — 
has  given  to  the  world  the  best  substitute  for  his  Satanic 
Majesty  ever  invented. 

WHAT  IS  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE? 

It  is  a  professed  Philosophy  of  life  and  a  new  and 
divine  revelation,  according  to  Mrs.  Eddy,  its  founder, 
"discovered"  by  her  and  yet  "revealed"  to  her  by  God 
about  1867,  and  contained  in  "Science  and  Health  and 

77 


Key  to  the  Scriptures."  Christian  Scientists,  of  course, 
claim  that  the  present  authorized  edition  of  "Science  and 
Health"  is  the  one  by  which  Mrs.  Eddy's  work  and 
Christian  Science  must  be  judged,  earlier  editions  hav- 
ing been  suppressed  and  bought  up,  and  revised  into  the 
perfected  bible  known  as  "Science  and  Health,"  and  now 
placed  before  the  world  as  of  equal  authority  and  value 
with  the  Bible,  the  two  constituting  the  sole  text  books 
of  this  movement. 

Dr.  Julia  Seton,  in  a  personal  letter  to  "Reason"  mag- 
azine, declared  that  the  purported  confession  of  Mary 
Baker  Eddy,  published  by  us  some  time  ago,  given 
through  the  hand  of  Mrs.  Amelia  Hoagland,  formerly 
Mrs.  Waters,  of  Los  Angeles,  never  came  from  Mrs. 
Baker  Eddy,  as  Mrs.  Eddy  was  one  of  the  masters  (I 
presume,  reincarnated  on  earth),  and  "the  masters," 
according  to  Dr  .Seton,  "never  made  any  mistakes."  Yet 
it  seems  that  even  Mrs.  Eddy  was  capable  of  making 
mistakes  or  there  would  not  have  been  so  many  revis- 
ions and  amendments  to  her  works,  nor  such  painstak- 
ing efforts  to  suppress  the  earlier  editions  of  her  books. 

Christian  Science  is  pure  Idealism,  as  a  Philosophy, 
and  pure  Pantheism  as  a  Religion.  As  a  Philosophy,  it 
declares  nothing  exists  but  Mind  and,  as  a  Religion, 
nothing  exists  but  God.  Its  arguments  put  into  syllo- 
gism would  be:  Nothing  exists  but  mind;  God  is  the 
only  mind;  therefore  evil  is  a  myth,  it  is  an  "error  of 
the  mortal  mind."  The  Allness  of  God  leaves  us  without 
any  comforting  doctrine  of  the  Fatherhood  and  Mother- 
hood of  God,  for,  if  God  is  all,  he  has  no  children.  It 
strips  the  universe  of  the  doctrine  of  divine  love,  for 
God  has  no  one  to  love;  He  is  all  there  is;  He  is  It. 

"SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH" 

As  for  the  great  text  book  known  as  "Science  and 
Health,"  it  is  undoubtedly  a  compilation,  derived  from 
many  sources,  and,  like  all  such  compilations  (our  Bible 
included),  it  is  far  from  consistent  with  itself.  The 
essential  feature  of  it,  that  which  makes  it  distinct  from 
other  books,  is  its  treatment  of  disease  and  the  cure  of 
disease.  This  feature,  with  certain  slight  modifications 

78 


by  Mrs.  Eddy,  is  the  system  practiced  by  Dr.  P.  P. 
Quimby,  of  New  England,  and  taught  by  him  to  Mrs. 
Eddy  and  used  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  at  first  with  full  acknowl- 
edgement of  its  Quimbian  authorship.  Dr.  Quimby's 
son,  who  was  his  secretary,  and  knew  all  about  Mrs. 
Eddy  being  a  patient  and  a  pupil  of  his  father,  wrote  a 
lengthy  letter  in  1894  to  Dr.  Minot  Savage.  I  have  that 
letter  in  my  possession  at  home.  He  declares  in  this  let- 
ter that  Mrs.  Eddy  was  healed  by  his  father;  that  she 
adopted  his  system;  and  gave  him,  at  first,  full  credit 
for  his  teaching.  He  says,  if  Mrs.  Eddy  denies  this,  she 
lies.  Mrs.  Eddy  publicly  praised  Dr.  Quimby  as  her 
healer  and  claimed  he  used  the  healing  power  of  Christ. 
She  wrote  a  poem  on  his  death. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  Berkeley's  philosophy  is  found 
in  "Science  and  Health."  There  are  many  paragraphs 
in  "Science  and  Health"  almost  verbatim  with  para- 
graphs found  in  a  book  published  about  1860.  I  believe 
the  title  was:  "Dealings  With  the  Dead."  It  is  men- 
tioned, and  the  parallel  passages  given,  in  a  book  pub- 
lished by  The  Austin  Publishing  Co.,  of  Rochester,  by 
Mrs.  Delia  Horn,  a  former  pupil  of  Mrs.  Eddy.  The  book 
is  called  "Timely  Aid."  A  gentleman  in  Seattle  has 
found  nearly  100  Scripture  interpretations  in  "Science 
and  Health,"  almost  verbatim  with  similar  ones  in  the 
writings  of  Emanuel  Swedenborg. 

Let  me  call  attention,  before  I  offer  further  adverse 
criticism,  to  certain  good  features  in  "Science  and 
Health"  and  in  the  Christian  Science  Movement. 

First,  "Science  and  Health"  is  an  utter  rejection  of 
the  Old  Theology  of  the  Churches.  It  has  no  dogma  of 
the  Fall,  and  no  depravity  of  man's  spiritual  nature,  and 
no  vicarious  atonement,  and  the  great  benefit  of  Jesus' 
blood-shedding  on  Calvary  is  as  a  manifestation  of  the 
love  of  God.  It  throws  overboard  the  "Plan  of  Salva- 
tion," the  ritualistic  and  sacramental  services,  and  it 
leads  its  followers  out  of  the  prison  house  of  the  creeded 
system.  That  is  one  great  boon  Christian  Science  has 
conferred  on  the  world.  Despite  all  its  erroneous  teach- 
ings, Christian  Science  has  started  millions  of  people  out 
of  the  corral  of  the  creeds  toward  mental  emancipation. 

Second,  its  Healing  work  cannot  be  doubted.  True,  it 

79 


is  quite  possible  that  there  are  many  exaggerations  in 
the  reports;  yet  no  one  who  has  studied  the  case  fairly 
doubts  that  many  signal  cures  are  made.  Let  it  be  noted, 
however,  that  this  healing  power,  in  any  organization, 
is  no  proof  of  the  correctness  of  that  organization's 
claims.  It  does  not  prove  the  Christian  Science  Philoso- 
phy of  the  cures  correct.  Metaphysical  healing  has  ex- 
isted in  every  age,  among  a  multitude  of  sects  and 
churches  that  have  taught  the  most  contradictory  philos- 
ophy of  their  cures.  Healing  power  does  not  always 
imply  clear  thought  and  logical  process. 

Third.  Another  great  benefit  of  the  movement  has 
been  this:  through  its  rapid  growth,  its  members  and 
its  money  power,  Christian  Science  has  aided  the  great 
battle  we  are  all  fighting  for  freedom  from  Medical 
Monopoly.  Spiritualist  and  all  Mental  Healers  and  all 
who  practice  Suggestive  Therapeutics  may  well  be  glad 
of  so  large  and  powerful  an  ally  as  Christian  Science  in 
the  war  against  Medical  Monopoly. 

Taken  as  a  whole,  the  Christian  Science  movement  is 
especially  interesting  to  spiritualists  from  two  stand- 
points: first,  as  originating  with  one  who  practiced  me- 
diumship,  and  secondly,  as  starting  a  great  multitude 
away  from  church  influence  and  control  who  will  not 
find  Christian  Science  soul-satisfying  and  will  some  day 
become  investigators  and  converts  to  Spiritualism. 
Christian  Science  will  be  the  half-way  house  between 
the  Churches  and  Spiritualism. 

LIMITATIONS,    INCONSISTENCIES    AND    "ERRORS 
OF  MORTAL  MIND"  IN  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

To  start  with,  neither  Mrs.  Eddy  nor  her  followers 
have  been  able  to  live  up  to  the  idealism  of  "Science  and 
Health."  A  philosophy  which  cannot  be  lived  is  not  a 
true  philosophy,  for  nature  and  life  are  the  tests  of 
truth.  No  man  can  live  as  though  there  were  no  mat- 
ter. He  may  profess  the  non-existence  of  matter,  but 
his  conduct  belies  his  profession.  In  extreme  cold  weath- 
er the  Christian  Scientist  gets  his  sense  of  warmth  and 
comfort,  not  out  of  his  philosophy,  but  out  of  the  same 
coal  fire  that  heats  the  ordinary  mortal.  He  does  not 
satisfy  his  sense  of  hunger  with  "Science  and  Health" 


but  with  a  porterhouse  steak.  He  clothes  his  non-exist- 
ent body  with  very  real  and  costly  clothing.  Elbert 
Hubbard,  the  last  time  I  met  him,  told  of  a  recent  lec- 
ture given  where,  before  the  lecture,  a  stentorian  voice 
from  the  gallery  cried  out,  "Is  there  a  Christian  Scien- 
tist in  the  audience?"  There  was  no  response.  Then 
a  second  and  louder  call  rang  through  the  building.  At 
last  a  demure  little  lady  rose  in  front  of  the  platform 
and  acknowledged  she  was  a  Christian  Scientist.  "Do 
please,  come  up  here  quickly,"  called  out  the  voice  again, 
"and  change  seats  with  me  for  I  feel  a  draft." 

Christian  Science  may,  and,  if  logically  interpreted, 
does  confound  all  moral  distinctions  in  conduct,  and  yet 
Christian  Scientists,  in  their  private  life  and  conduct, 
recognize  these  distinctions  as  other  people  do.  Whether 
there  is  any  evil  in  the  world  or  not,  Mrs.  Eddy  recog- 
nized a  deadly  evil  in  Animal  Magnetism  and  in  mental 
mal-practice.  So  the  old  world  will  go  on  as  before 
Christian  Science  was  born,  admiring  and  loving  its 
Florence  Nightingales,  its  Grace  Darlings,  its  Joan  of 
Arcs,  its  heroes  and  martyrs  for  truth,  its  Socrates, 
Brunos,  and  its  Christs,  and  condemning  its  traitors,  its 
cowards,  its  betrayers  of  innocence  and  its  Judas  Iscar- 
iots,  to  the  end  of  time. 

The  Catholic  World  condemns  Christian  Science  as 
immoral.  First,  on  the  ground  that  it  denies  the  reality 
of  sin.  To  a  moralist,  it  must  seem  a  rather  dangerous 
dogma  to  teach  humanity,  surrounded  as  we  are  in  life 
with  temptations  and  opportunities  for  wrong  doing, 
that  man  cannot  sin  against  God  and  that  sin  is  a  de- 
lusion. It  condemns  Christian  Science  on  the  ground 
that  it  denies  freedom  of  will  to  man,  and  this  removes 
his  sense  of  responsibility.  It  further  condemns  it  on 
the  ground  of  using  the  Bible  to  sanction  its  teachings 
yet  denying  most  of  the  fundamental  Scripture  teach- 
ings. It  condemns  the  doctrines  of  Christian  Science 
further,  on  the  ground  that  it  makes  marriage  a  mild 
form  of  error.  Mrs.  Eddy  herself  declared  that  "it  is 
possible  to  maintain  morality  and  progeny  in  Science 
and  yet  abolish  marriage."  Yet  when  Mrs.  Woodbury, 
one  of  her  followers,  followed  Mrs.  Eddy's  teachings  to 
a  logical  conclusion  and  claimed  to  have  immaculately 

81 


conceived  a  son,  she  was  promptly  excommunicated. 
Mrs.  Eddy  held  there  was  something  higher  in  the 
wedded  life  than  motherhood,  which  is  one  of  the  many 
dark  and  puzzling  statements  of  "Science  and  Health." 
In  fact,  to  people  who  really  want  to  know  the  meaning 
of  language,  this  great  text  book  is  a  book  of  puzzles 
and  conundrums.  For  example,  what  is  the  meaning  of 
this  definition  of  children:  "Spiritual  thoughts  and  rep- 
resentations of  life,  truth  and  love?"  She  also  defines 
children  as  sensual  and  mortal  beliefs.  Jesus,  not  being 
instructed  in  Christian  Science,  believed  that  children 
were  real  individuals  and  declared,  "Of  such  is  the 
kingdom." 

Take  a  few  of  the  errors  of  mortal  mind  found  in 
"Science  and  Health"  in  the  chapter  on  Spiritualism. 
"Spiritualism  is  the  offspring  of  the  physical  senses." 
"I  never  could  believe  in  Spiritualism."  Yet  Mrs.  Helen 
P.  Russegue  went  in  company  with  a  lady  who  desired 
and  got  a  spirit  reading  from  Mrs.  Eddy  in  Boston,  and 
Mrs.  Eddy,  on  that  occasion,  told  Mrs.  Russegue  she 
was  going  to  found  a  new  religion  and  leave  Spiritual- 
ism out  of  it.  It  was  not  popular,  and  she  asked  Mrs. 
Russeque,  on  that  occasion,  to  join  her  in  the  enterprise, 
and  Mrs.  Russeque  declined.  This  statement  of  Mrs. 
Russeque  was  published  in  "Reason"  some  years  ago. 
She  recognized  the  fact  that  Jesus  cast  out  evil  spirits, 
but  her  interpretation  of  evil  spirts  was  "false  beliefs." 

This  was  another  instance  where  Jesus  showed  his 
lack  of  instruction  from  Mrs.  Eddy,  for  he  evidently  re- 
garded evil  spirits  as  individual  intelligences  and  spoke 
to  them  as  he  spoke  to  men.  "So-called  spirits,"  she 
tells  us,  "are  but  corporeal  communicators."  "The  so- 
called  dead  and  living  cannot  commune  together."  She 
charges  Spiritualists  with  believing  that  "men  die  as 
matter  and  come  to  life  as  spirit."  "Spiritualism  con- 
signs the  so-called  dead,"  so  she  tells  us,  "to  a  wretched 
purgatory,  where  the  chances  for  improvement  for  the 
departed  narrow  into  nothing,  and  they  return  to  their 
old  standpoints  of  matter."  "Matter  or  body,"  she 
gravely  tells  us,  "is  a  false  concept  of  mortal  mind." 
And  yet,  in  another  passage,  she  tells  us  that  the  "Di- 
vine Mind  will  care  for  the  human  body  as  it  clothes  the 

82 


lily."  This  sounds  to  us  like  a  contradiction,  for,  if  the 
body  is  only  a  false  mental  concept  of  mortal  mind,  it 
would  seem  as  though  God  himself  would  have  some 
difficulty  in  clothing  it  like  the  lily.  In  another  place, 
Mrs.  Eddy  declares  that  the  departing  in  the  vestibule 
of  death,  "may  hear  the  glad  welcome  of  those  who 
have  gone  before." 

MALICIOUS  ANIMAL  MAGNETISM 

The  inconsistency  of  denying  the  existence  of  evil, 
save  as  a  false  concept,  and  then  practically  creating  a 
great  Devil  of  Fear  and  Superstition,  called  by  Mrs. 
Eddy  "Malicious  Animal  Magnetism,"  seems  to  have 
dawned  on  the  leaders  of  the  movement  and  on  Mrs. 
Eddy  herself,  for  most  of  her  teachings  on  this  subject 
have  been  vigorously  cut  out  of  later  editions  of  "Science 
and  Health"  and  her  Christian  Science  monthly.  Mr. 
Podmore  charges  Mrs.  Eddy  with  "doing  all  in  her  power 
to  revive  the  power  of  fear  which  oppressed  Europe  for 
centuries."  And  Dr.  Jastrow,  Professor  of  Psychology 
in  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  also  points  out  the  dan- 
gerous character  of  this  teaching  and  asks,  if  denying 
an  evil  will  annihilate  it,  why  asserting  an  evil  will  not 
create  it. 

From  "The  Nation,"  May,  1910,  we  extract  the  fol- 
lowing editorial  comments  on  "Malicious  Animal  Mag- 
netism" as  taught  by  Mrs.  Eddy: — 

"Nature  usually  asserts  herself  strongly  against  all 
perfectionist  theory.  It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that 
the  sect  whose  chief  tenet  is  the  non-existence  of  evil, 
should  be  greatly  troubled  by  evil  in  the  form  of  ma- 
licious animal  magnetism.  The  term  means  nothing 
more  than  that  enemies,  generally  of  the  same  faith, 
may,  though  at  a  distance,  injure  the  mind  of  the  suf- 
ferer. It  is  the  reverse  of  the  beneficient  absent  treat- 
ment by  which  disease  may  be  cured  by  a  remote  'men- 
tal healer.'  Under  the  terror  of  such  projected  malevo- 
lence, several  unhappy  persons  have  committed  suicide. 
*  *  *  It  is  impossible  not  to  mark  the  significance  of  a 
monistic  creed,  which  asserts  the  sole  existence  of  God 
and  good,  beginning  to  asume  the  dualistic  form.  *  *  * 
If  a  case  had  been  presented  to  a  seventeenth  century 

83 


magistrate  of  the  state  of  Massachusetts  or  of  Lan- 
cashire, he  would  have  known  all  about  it,  and  would 
have  pronounced  it  a  common  case  of  witchcraft  and, 
had  any  respectable  evidence  been  produced  against  the 
offender,  would  unhesitatingly  have  condemned  the 
witch  to  the  gallows.  *  *  *  If  this  apparently  new  phe- 
nomenon were  referred  to  an  alienist,  he  would  prompt- 
ly class  it  as  a  case  of  incipient  insanity.  The  spectacle 
of  an  ideal  and  highly  benevolent  faith  spontaneously 
developing  some  of  the  ugliest  superstitions  of  the  past, 
and,  in  the  name  of  mental  health,  actually  undermining 
the  intellects  of  certain  of  the  faithful,  is,  to  the  his- 
torical student  of  religions,  both  pathetic  and  instruc- 
tive. *  *  *  Here  is  a  cult  beginning  to  stultify  itself 
within  the  lifetime  of  its  Founder." 

Mrs.  Eddy  claimed  that  her  first  husband  was  killed 
by  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism.  Dr.  Jastrow  claims 
Mrs.  Eddy  as  the  author  of  this  fearful  doctrine.  In 
Hampton's  Magazine  he  tells  of  a  woman  ,who  believed 
Mrs.  Stetson,  the  rival  of  Mrs.  Eddy  and,  at  that  time, 
head  of  the  Christian  Scientists  of  New  York  City,  had 
exerted  this  Malicious  Animal  Magnetism  upon  her. 
Here  is  what  the  woman  says  she  experienced  from  the 
Malicious  Animal  Magnetism  of  Mrs.  Stetson:  "At  mid- 
night I  was  awakened  by  an  icy  blast  sweeping  through 
the  open  window  from  the  direction  of  New  York.  My 
teeth  chattered;  my  heart  fluttered;  luminous  waves 
rolled  over  me,  covered  with  the  faces  of  the  dead.  I 
felt  just  like  a  man  being  electrocuted.  It  seemed,  in- 
deed, my  soul  went  from  my  body,  that  I  saw  through 
the  walls  of  the  house;  and,  in  the  hour  of  agony,  I  saw 
Mrs.  Stetson's  blue  eyes  all  around  the  room."  She  at- 
tributed also  the  death  of  her  baby  to  Mrs.  Stetson's 
evil  influence. 

There  is  no  doubt  of  two  facts:  First,  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
taught  this  17th  Century  Witchcraft,  and  that  she  at- 
tributed her  own  illness,  her  failure,  the  desertion  of  her 
friends  and  the  death  of  her  husband  to  it.  Mrs.  Eddy 
believed  in  it  so  thoroughly  that  he  ran  out  of  the  house 
to  the  neighbors  at  times  to  escape  the  blasts  of  Ma- 
licious Animal  Magnetism  directed  against  the  family. 
Richard  Kennedy,  Mrs.  Eddy's  first  practical  pupil,  was 

84 


publicly  prosecuted  for  using  Malicious  Animal  Magne- 
tism, and  Daniel  Stafford,  his  successor,  was  also  ac- 
cused. Thus  you  have  a  revival,  for  a  time,  of  the  dog- 
mas and  beliefs  of  European  and  Salem  Witchcraft. 

Christian  Science  will  yet  pass  through  many  stages. 
It  did  in  Mrs.  Eddy's  time.  Now  the  attempt  to  stereo- 
type the  movement  by  a  fixed  and  final  edition  of  "Sci- 
ence and  Health,"  by  autocratic  rule  that  would  make 
the  ideas  and  wishes  of  Mrs.  Eddy  forever  binding  on 
her  followers,  I  predict  will  fail.  There  will  be  revisions 
of  "Science  and  Health,"  and  they  are  sadly  needed — 
and  a  broadening  out  of  the  teachings  into  some  sem- 
blance of  harmony  with  the  thought  of  the  age.  The 
chapter  on  Spiritualism  will  be  omitted  or  altered  be- 
yond recognition  in  the  future.  This  revision  is  abso- 
lutely needed  to  remove  the  direct  contradictions  that 
are  found  in  it.  It  is  needed  to  clear  up,  and  make  in- 
telligible to  the  public,  sentences  and  phrases  that  no 
one  seemingly  can  understand.  In  fact,  some  of  the  ex- 
pressions in  "Science  and  Health"  remind  one  of  Talley- 
rand's statement,  that  the  purpose  of  language  is  to  con- 
ceal thought.  A  revision  is  needed  to  remove  the  de- 
nials of  the  truth  of  Spiritualism,  which  the  whole  world 
seems  destined  to  accept.  With  the  marvelous  psychic 
phenomena  multiplying  al  lover  the  world,  with  the  pub- 
lished results  of  Psychic  Research  by  the  best  scholars 
and  thinkers  of  the  world;  with  the  growing  demand  in 
this  world  war  for  a  true  philosophy  of  life  and  death, 
and  communications  from  the  unseen  realm,  Spiritual- 
ism is  marching  on  to  conquest  among  thinkers  today 
faster  than  any  other  teaching  in  the  world.  It  is  only 
a  question  of  time  when  the  world  acknowledges  its 
Truth.  And  where  then  will  "Science  and  Health,"  with 
its  denials,  stand? 

The  many  intelligent  thinkers  in  the  ranks  of  Chris- 
tian Science  who  long  for  a  fuller  Gospel  than  their 
church  affords,  will  compel  revisions  and  modification  of 
its  teachings.  This  is  borne  out  by  the  large  numbers 
of  Christian  Scientists  who  attend  Seances  and  who  find 
their  way  into  our  classes  and  services. 

The  intelligent  classes  now  enrolled  in  the  Christian 
Science  Movement  will  not  long  tolerate  the  absurdity 

85 


of  limiting  the  spiritual  instruction  of  humanity  to  two 
books,  however  excellent  those  books  may  be. 

It  cannot  be  that  a  great  Liberal  Movement  like  Chris- 
tian Science  will  put  itself  squarely  in  opposition  to  the 
Societies  for  Psychical  Research  and  the  Scholarship  and 
Science  of  today,  by  denying  wireless  communication  be- 
tween mortals  and  spirits. 

The  attempt  to  exploit  Christian  Science  as  the  true 
Gospel  of  Jesus  is  doomed  to  utter  failure,  since  Jesus 
recognized  and  practiced  Spirit  Communion  and  took  his 
followers  to  a  seance  on  the  mountain,  and  prophesied 
and  arranged  for  the  greatest  seance  in  history — at  Pen- 
tecost. Jesus  recognized  the  reality  of  the  material 
realm,  laid  his  hands  on  the  sick,  cast  out  evil  spirits, 
and  never  professed  any  power  or  grace  not  open  and 
free  for  all  men — all  of  which  is  in  strong  contrast  to 
Christian  Science  teachings  and  methods.  Jesus  made 
no  claim  for  the  finality  of  his  Gospel.  He  repeatedly 
declared  that  he  had  many  things  to  say  to  his  follow- 
ers, but  they  were  not  ready  for  them.  He  assured  them 
that  the  spirit  should  be  outpoured  upon  them  and  guide 
them  into  all  truth.  He  left  the  way  open,  therefore, 
for  future  inspiration,  future  revelations,  claiming  no 
monopoly  of  the  trtuh,  no  monopoly  of  healing  power,  no 
wonderful  discoveries  for  copyrighting  and  exploiting 
to  the  world.  All  of  which  seem  to  be  in  strong  contrast 
to  Christian  Science  teachings  and  practice. 

THE  CONFESSION  OF  REV.  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 

The  confession  of  Mrs.  Eddy,  in  pamphlet  form,  has 
now  been  for  some  time  before  the  world,  as  given 
through  the  hand  of  Mrs.  Amelia  Hoagland  of  Los  An- 
geles, a  psychic  and  lady  most  widely  and  favorably 
known  throughout  America.  It  has  attracted  the  atten- 
tion of  such  men  as  Sir  Wm.  Crookes,  F.R.S.,  of  Eng- 
land, Dr.  Hyslop  of  the  American  Psychic  Research  So- 
ciety, and  thousands  of  intelligent  readers  who  believe 
it  reflects  the  remorse  of  Mrs.  Eddy  in  Spirit  Life  over 
the  suppression  of  the  great  truth  of  Spirit  Return. 
Having  had  direct  personal  testimony  from  those  who 
knew  Mrs.  Eddy  as  a  practicing  Medium  and  knew,  from 
her  lips,  of  her  intention  to  renounce  Spiritualism,  be- 

86 


cause  of  its  unpopularity,  and  knowing  the  absolute  sin- 
cerity of  Mrs.  Hoagland,  I  believed,  at  the  time  the  Con- 
fession was  first  presented  to  me,  and  believe  now,  that 
it  is  a  genuine  Spirit  Message  emanating  from  the 
Founder  of  Christian  Science  in  the  spirit  realm.  I  be- 
lieve, for  the  sake  of  Mrs.  Eddy  and  for  the  cause  of 
truth,  that  it  should  be  widely  circulated  to  the  world. 
In  the  pamphlet  I  give  the  story  of  the  origin  of  the 
Confession,  the  Confession  itself,  and  my  reasons,  in 
summary,  for  believing  it  came  from  the  Founder  of 
the  Christian  Science  Movement. 

*     *     *     *     * 
MODERN  SPIRITUALISM 

Modern  Spiritualism,  as  expounded  to  the  world  in  its 
literature  and  by  its  accredited  teachers  in  both  worlds, 
while  claiming  no  perfection,  is  recognized  by  its  stu- 
dents as  the  most  rational,  inspiring  and  comforting 
philosophy  of  life  yet  given  to  the  world.  But  Modern 
Spiritualism,  as  expressed  to  the  world  by  its  followers, 
like  every  other  religion,  is  characterized  by  many  sad 
failures  and  mistakes.  One  great  failure  in  connection 
with  Modern  Spiritualism  was  its  lack  of  organization 
as  a  Religious  Movement  for  over  forty  years  after  its 
advent.  Perhaps,  however,  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
general  public,  the  Spiritualism  of  this  unorganized 
period  was  able  to  diffuse  its  spirit  and  its  message  so 
widely  that  these  became  the  seed  of  many  new  move- 
ments (New  Thought,  Christian  Science,  Theosophy,  as 
well  as  the  organized  and  officially  recognized  Spiritual- 
ist Association).  The  Spiritualist  Movement  has  been 
the  fruitful  mother  of  nearly  all  the  great  liberal  move- 
ments of  the  last  half  century. 

Another  failure  of  Spiritualism,  which  has  cost  it 
much,  has  been  its  neglect  to  teach  and  practice  Spir- 
itual Healing  as  a  fundamental  of  its  work.  Another 
serious  failure  has  been  its  neglect  to  organize  its  fol- 
lowers into  classes  for  systematic  study.  Spiritualism 
has  failed  in  too  many  instances  to  guard  its  rostrum 
from  incompetents  and,  in  some  cases,  from  impostors. 
It  has  often  failed  in  its  leadership,  where  men  and 
women  have  sought  office  rather  than  have  the  office  seek 

87 


them.  Incompetent  leadership  has  been  the  ruin  of 
many  an  organization.  Yet,  despite  these  failures,  all  of 
which  are  incidents  to  every  new  movement,  Spiritual- 
ism can  be  said  to  have  already  accomplished  a  great 
and  blessed  work  for  mankind. 

1.  It  has  done  for  our  age  what  Jesus  accomplished 
for  his  age,  in  bringing  life  and  immortality  to  light. 
Jesus  did  not  argue  or  discourse  much  about  immortali- 
ty.   He  assumed  that  it  was  true  and  then,  by  his  res- 
urrection, gave  the  demonstration  of  it.    We  accept,  with 
our  Orthodox  friends,  the  eleven  different  appearances 
of  Jesus  after  his  death,  but  these  to   us  are   spirit 
manifestations  and  prove  an  inherent  power  in  every 
man  to  triumph  over  death.   To  our  age  and  time,  Spir- 
itualism is  the  risen  Christ  proving  that  life  is  ever  lord 
of  death. 

2.  Spiritualism  has  powerfully  modified  the  thought 
of  the  age.    It  has  compelled  the  clergy  to  think,  con- 
verted a  goodly  number  of  them,  and  changed  the  tone  of 
pulpit  teaching  vastly  for  the  better.    It  has  compelled 
the  clergy  to  play  the  soft  pedal  on  the  doctrines  of  elec- 
tion, predestination,  eternal  damnation,  and  upon  many 
foolish    and    fantastic    notions    fomerly    taught    about 
heaven  and  hell.    Spiritualism,  by  its  Optimism  and  its 
wider  hope  for  humanity,  has  brightened  and  rendered 
less  dreadful  and  fearsome  the  subject  of  religion  in 
general,  and  almost  entirely  stopped  the  preaching  of 
those  awful  dogmas  of  the  Devil  and  the  Judgment  Day. 
Every  church  attendant  in  the  world  is  under  obligation 
to   Spiritualism  for  the  improvement  in  the  religious 
teachings  since  the  advent  of  our  Movement. 

3.  Spiritualism  meets  the  world  demand  for  knowl- 
edge of  Death  and  the  After  Life.    Before  Spiritualism 
came  in,  the  church  teaching  of  Death  and  the  After 
Life  was  very  discordant,  very  misty  and  indefinite,  and 
whatever  direct  and  explicit  teachings  were  given  on 
these  subjects  were  full  of  fear  and  dread  for  men.  To- 
day, through  our  Philosophy,  the  world  has  a  rational 
concept  of  death  as  an  event  in  life,  and  men  are  grad- 
ually growing  into  rational  conception  of  the  future  life. 
This  is  due  to  Modern  Spiritualism. 

Our  critics  declare  that  "Spiritualism  has,  with  all  its 

88 


pretended  messages,  really  given  us  nothing  of  value 
concerning  the  Future  Life." 

We  affirm,  in  reply,  that  Spiritualism  has  given  us 
great  basic  and  supremely  important  teachings  about 
the  Spirit  World,  which  have  entirely  altered  the  world's 
concept  of  man's  future.  Let  me  summarize: 

1.  It  asserts  that  the  spirit  is  a  natural  world,  gov- 
erned by  law,  and  not  a  realm  ruled  by  a  personal  God. 

2.  Man  has  liberty  of  thought  and  action  there  as  he 
has  here.   There  is  no  shut-in  heaven  or  prison  hell. 

3.  It  asserts  that  the  life  after  death  is  a  continu- 
ance of  the  life  here,  each  man  beginning  there  as  he 
left  off  here,  death  making  no  change  in  character. 

4.  It  asserts  that  rewards  and  punishments  are  nat- 
ural and  not  artificial;  that  forgiveness  of  sin  does  not 
void  the  penalty  of  sin. 

5.  It  asserts  that  men  are  not  saved  by  "blood,"  or 
"faith,"    or    "vicarious    atonement,"    or    "election,"    or 
"sacraments,"  or  "masses,"  but  by  knowledge  and  obedi- 
ence to  the  truth.    It  preaches  salvation  by  character. 

6.  It  asserts  the  possibility  and  indulges  the  hope 
of  the  final  salvation  of  all  men,  since  the  door  of  re- 
formation is  never  closed  in  this  world  or  the  next.  Some 
day,  somehow  and  somewhere  every  human  soul  shall 
come  into  knowledge  of,  and  harmony  with,  truth,  and 
happiness  and  heaven. 

7.  It  asserts  that  mortals  and  spirits  alike  are  en- 
dowed with  inherent  powers  by  which,  through  natural 
laws,  they  may  communicate  with  those  at  a  distance, 
and  that  the  door  of  communication  is  open  between  the 
two  worlds  to  all  who  learn  the  truth  and  comply  with 
the  conditions. 

8.  Punishment  in  nature  is  natural,  certain  and  re- 
medial and  never  vindictive  or  arbitrary. 

9.  That  departed  souls  do  not  lose  memory  of,  and 
interest  in,  their  earth  friends  and  human  affairs,  but 
often  complete  their  unfinished  earth  work  through  the 
organism  of  sensitives  on  earth. 

10.  That  mediumship  is  the  channel  of  inspiration, 
communication  and  revelation  in  spirit  spheres  as  it  is 
here — a  great  and  universal  divine  plan  through  all  or- 
ders of  being  and  through  all  planes  of  human  evolution, 

89 


by  which  the  wiser  and  more  advanced  may  instruct  and 
inspire  the  younger  members  of  God's  family. 

These  are  a  few  of  the  great  fundamental  teachings  of 
Spiritualism  regarding  the  Future  Life.  They  show  that 
Spiritualism  is  to  the  religions  of  the  world  what  the 
aeroplane  service  is  to  the  allied  armies — "the  eyes  of 
the  army."  It  is  the  aerial  service  which  looks  forward 
and  maps  out  the  line  of  advance.  Spiritualism  is  map- 
ping out  humanity's  future  and  every  one  knows  that 
even  the  churches  are  accepting  these  great  fundamental 
teachings  of  Spiritualism  concerning  the  Future  Life. 

Spiritualism  comforts  where  all  other  sources  of 
comforts  fail.  Sorrowing  humanity  today  weeps  at  the 
tomb  of  millions  of  her  dead.  Bereaved  humanity  is  not 
comforted  by  the  record  of  miracles  and  resurrections 
two  thousand  years  ago.  Nor  will  it  be  satisfied  with  the 
promise  of  miracles  and  resurrections  two  thousand 
years  in  the  future. 

Nothing  but  knowledge  and  demonstration  of  the 
After  Life  today,  nothing  but  the  touch  of  the  vanished 
hand  and  the  sound  of  the  voice  stilled  in  death,  will 
comfort  earth's  sorrowing  ones  today.  Spiritualism 
alone  gives  this  Nectar  of  divine  comfort  to  men. 

No  other  Philosophy  or  Religion  places  so  high  an 
estimate  upon  human  nature,  or  unfolds  more  clearly  the 
laws  of  human  growth  and  progress,  or  furnishes  such 
strong  motives  for  obedience  to  law  and  truth,  or  brings 
men  so  closely  in  touch  with  angelic  helpers,  as  Modern 
Spiritualism. 

It  compasses  in  its  philosophy  this  world  and  all 
worlds.  It  is  eclectic  taking  in  all  demonstrated  truth, 
all  nature  teaching,  all  truths  gained  by  human  experi- 
ence, all  the  inspired  teachings  of  the  ages  and  in  addi- 
tion giving  us  the  instruction  and  help  of  the  spirit 
world  today. 

The  Mission  of  Spiritualism  is,  therefore,  to  instruct, 
comfort,  to  unfold  and  develop,  and  inspire  humanity, 
here  and  hereafter. 


90 


THE  PRACTICAL  VALUE  OF  A  GOOD 
MEMORY 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Few  people  are  as  deeply  impressed  as  they  should 
be,  with  the  practical  value  of  a  good  memory.  Most 
persons  look  upon  it  as  a  desirable  possession,  but  es- 
teem it  rather  a  luxury  than  a  necessity.  The  fact  is 
a  strong  and  active  memory  is  one  of  the  most  power- 
ful factors  of  success  in  life.  In  business,  in  society,  in 
professional  life,  in  literary  pursuits,  a  good  memory  is 
in  constant  requisition,  and  contributes  very  largely  to 
success.  An  active  and  retentive  memory  adds  very 
largely  to  the  enjoyment  of  life.  It  makes  its  possessor 
a  better  and  more  instructive  conversationalist,  more 
successful  in  all  pursuits  that  involve  intercourse  with 
one's  fellowmen,  and,  if  the  lessons  of  the  past  are  im- 
proved upon,  wiser  and  nobler  in  character. 

A  good  memory  saves  its  owner  from  a  multitude  of 
annoying  and  troublesome  experiences  that  fall  to  the 
lot  of  forgetful  people.  Not  long  since  a  minister,  an 
acquaintance  of  the  writer,  had  two  engagements  to 

preach,  one  on  a  certain  Sunday  in  E ,  and  one  on 

the  following  Sunday  in  G— .  Trusting  to  his 

memory,  which  was  a  treacherous  one,  he  found,  on  ar- 
riving late  Saturday  evening  in  G ,  that  his  ap- 
pointment was  at  E ;  sitting  down,  he  telegraphed 

his  wife,  a  very  sensible  and  matter-of-fact  lady,  "Am 

in  G ,  should  be  in  E ;  what  shall  I  do? 

To  which,  as  fast  as  the  electric  current  would  carry  it, 
she  sent  the  following  sensible  reply:  "Go  to  bed." 

Now,  as  the  above  is  only  a  fair  illustration  of  a 
multitude  of  annoying  experiences  and  disadvantages, 
which  are  constantly  befalling  persons  of  bad  memory, 
it  may  be  worth  while  to  analyze  the  incident,  and 
classify  the  results  that  sprang  from  it.  The  first 
result,  then,  was  the  disappointment  of  his  audience, 

91 


to  which  we  must  add  his  own  and  that  of  his  good 
wife.  The  second  result  was  undoubtedly  a  feeling  of 
mortification  over  a  failure,  from  which  the  exercise 
of  an  active  memory  would  have  saved  him.  The  third 
result  was  financial  loss,  telegrams,  railroad  fare  and 
incidentals.  The  fourth  result  was  loss  of  time — the 
trip  having  to  be  repeated  at  a  later  date.  Here  then, 
we  have  a  summary — disappointment,  mortification, 
financial  loss,  and  loss  of  time,  all  directly  traceable  to 
a  single  lapse  of  memory,  and  from  all  of  which  a  trusty 
memory  would  have  saved  him. 

A  good  memory  then  is  strongly  to  be  desired,  that 
it  may  save  us  from  adding  needlessly  to  life's  disap- 
pointments. Throughout  life's  career  many  engage- 
ments must  be  met,  many  duties  discharged,  many 
labors  transacted,  the  proper  performance  of  which 
requires  an  alert  memory,  one  that  answers  instantly 
and  correctly  the  demands  of  the  hour.  If  our  mem- 
ories respond  to  the  occasion,  and  act  the  part  of  faith- 
ful monitors,  life  proceeds  with  satisfaction  and  success. 
If,  on  the  other  hand,  memory,  like  banks  which  refuse 
to  pay  on  demand  and  require  thirty  days'  notice,  fails 
to  present  to  the  consciousness  at  the  right  time  and 
place  the  ideas  appropriate  to  the  occasion,  the  result 
is  disappointment  of  ourselves  and  others. 

A  second  reason  why  all,  especially  young  people, 
should  desire  and  seek  after  a  good  memory,  is  that 
they  may  escape  those  constant  mortifications  which 
come  to  those  who  are  troubled  with  lapse  of  memory. 

Another  strong  reason  for  desiring  an  active  memory 
is  found  in  the  fact  that  it  saves  its  possessor  from 
financial  losses  which  always  result  from  deficient  mem- 
ory. A  good  memory  is  equivalent  to  a  good  invest- 
ment yielding  its  owner  certain  cash  dividends.  If  the 
testimonies  of  business  men  who  are  victims  of  bad 
memory  were  collected,  it  would  be  found  that  there  is 
a  large  annual  loss  to  be  credited  to  this  cause  alone. 
In  the  neglect  to  meet  engagements  promptly,  to  attend 
to  certain  details  of  business  where  delay  means  loss, 
to  take  advantage  of  opportunities  at  the  favorable 
moment,  all  of  which  result  largely  from  deficient  mem- 
ory power,  business  men  lose  large  sums  annually.  How 

92 


many  men  from  lack  of  proper  thought,  resulting  from 
sluggish  memory,  have  to  take  two  journeys  where  one 
should  have  been  sufficient,  to  write  two  letters  or 
send  two  telegrams,  or  two  express  parcels,  where  one 
should  have  answered,  and,  in  numberless  other  ways, 
are  often  put  to  loss. 

A  good  memory  is  a  great  time  saver.  Not  only  does 
it  save  the  time  and  vexation  so  many  experience  in 
"cudgeling  their  brains"  for  facts  and  ideas  which 
should  be  ever  at  hand,  but  enables  its  owner  to  per- 
form nearly  all  the  activities  of  life  more  expeditiously, 
accurately  and  successfully.  It  saves  needless  effort.  It 
economizes  human  energy.  By  saving  from  needless 
disappointment,  vexation  and  effort,  it,  in  effect,  length- 
ens life. 

A  good  memory  is  a  necessary  handmaid  to  a  sound 
intelligence.  It  furnishes  the  reflective  powers  with  the 
materials  of  knowledge.  Bias  declares :  "Memory  is  the 
mother  of  wisdom;  for  what  is  wisdom  without  mem- 
ory, but  a  babe  that  is  strangled  in  its  birth." 

Prof.  Scott  declares  that  "if  we  examine  the  endow- 
ment of  men  of  genius  and  those  famed  for  intellectual 
exertions,  we  shall  find  that  a  retentive  and  capacious 
memory  formed  the  basis  upon  which  their  fame  was 
reared." 

For  practical  purposes,  our  knowledge  and  past  ex- 
perience are  valuable  to  us  just  in  proportion  as  mem- 
ory retains  them  and  furnishes  us  with  them  on  de- 
mand. He  who  knows  a  great  many  things  and  has 
had  very  valuable  experience,  is  practically  in  the  posi- 
tion of  the  man  who  knows  little  and  has  had  but  little 
experience,  unless  his  memory  serves  him  promptly  and 
well.  The  maxim  of  the  old  scholars  was  that  so  often 
repeated  by  Casauban — Tantum  quisque  scit  quantum 
memoria  tenet:  Every  man  knows  just  what  he  remem- 
bers. 

In  1555,  Gulielmus  Gratarolus  published  a  work  on 
the  art  of  memory,  and  in  1562  William  Fulwood  pub- 
lished an  edition  of  it,  "Englyshed,"  under  the  title  of 
"The  Castel  of  Memorie."  In  the  dedication  and  preface, 
Fulwood  drops  into  poetry. 

Lord  Macauley  had  a  phenomenally  powerful  memory. 

93 


When  only  three  or  four  years  of  age  he  took  in  whole 
pages  of  what  he  read.  His  mind  at  that  time  would 
seem  to  have  mechanically  retained  the  form  of  what  he 
read.  His  maid  said  he  "talked  printed  words."  Once, 
when  a  child,  when  making  an  afternoon  call  with  his 
father,  he  picked  up  Scott's  "Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel," 
for  the  first  time.  While  his  seniors  were  conversing 
he  quietly  devoured  the  treasure.  When  they  returned 
home  the  boy  went  to  his  mother,  who,  at  the  time,  was 
confined  to  her  bed,  and,  seating  himself  beside  her,  re- 
peated what  he  had  read  by  the  canto,  until  she  was 
tired.  In  after  life,  one  day  at  a  board  meeting  at  the 
British  museum,  Macaulay  wrote  down  from  memory, 
in  three  parallel  columns  on  each  side  of  four  pages  of 
foolscap,  a  complete  list  of  the  Cambridge  senior  wrang- 
lers with  dates  and  Colleges  attached,  for  the  100  years 
during  which  a  record  of  the  names  had  been  kept  in 
the  university  calendar.  Many  other  examples  of  this 
kind,  showing  Macaulay's  wonderful  memory,  might  be 
presented;  he  once  said,  if  all  existing  copies  of  "Para- 
dise Lost"  and  "Pilgrim's  Progress"  were  destroyed,  he 
could  restore  them  from  memory. 

Magliabechi,  court  librarian  at  Florence,  was  the  lit- 
erary prodigy  of  his  times.  He  had  crammed  into  his 
head  the  contents  of  an  immense  library.  He  could, 
upon  demand,  not  only  supply  any  quotation  desired, 
but  was  also  able  to  give  page  and  paragraph.  He  at 
last  became  regardless  of  all  social  and  sanitary  rules 
and  almost  rotted  amid  a  confused  heap  of  books. 

Jedediah  Buxton,  who  died  in  1774,  possessed  a  re- 
markable memory.  Although  a  schoolmaster,  he  was 
so  illiterate  he  could  scarcely  scrawl  his  own  name.  On 
one  occasion  he  mentioned  the  quantity  of  ale  he  had 
drunk  since  he  was  twelve  years  old,  and  the  names  of 
the  gentlemen  who  had  given  it  to  him.  The  whole 
amounted,  he  said,  to  five  thousand  one  hundred  and 
sixteen  pints,  or  "winds,"  as  he  termed  them,  because, 
like  the  toper  Bassus,  he  emptied  his  jug  at  one  draught. 
Although  he  had  received  very  little  instruction  in 
arithmetic,  and  had  never  been  assisted  in  his  youth, 
beyond  learning  the  multiplication  table,  yet,  without 
the  aid  of  pen  or  pencil,  he  could  multiply  five  or  six 

94 


figures  by  so  many,  and  in  a  much  shorter  time  than  it 
could  be  done  by  the  most  expert  arithmetician.  The 
product  of  the  sum,  which  in  his  memory  he  had  worked 
out,  he  would  repeat,  if  it  were  required,  a  month  after- 
ward. He  could,  moreover,  leave  off  the  operation,  and, 
without  the  slightest  error,  resume  it  at  the  end  of  a 
week  or  a  month,  or  even  after  several  months. 

Dr.  Abernethy  had  a  singularly  retentive  memory. 
One  day  he  invited  a  company  of  friends  to  do  honor 
to  his  wife's  birthday,  when  one  of  the  guests  of  a 
poetical  turn  of  mind,  composed  some  verses  compli- 
mentary to  Mrs.  Abernethy.  The  doctor  listened  at- 
tentively to  the  reading  of  them,  and  then  exclaimed, 
"Come,  that  is  a  good  joke,  to  attempt  to  pass  off  those 
verses  as  your  own  composition ;  I  know  them  by  heart." 
All  were  mute  with  astonishment,  while  Dr.  Abernethy 
recited  the  verses  without  a  single  error.  The  "poet" 
was  completely  amazed,  mystified  and  angry.  The 
amused  host  explained  his  power  of  memory,  and  offered 
to  repeat  any  piece  of  the  same  length  that  any  of  the 
company  would  recite. 

Mr.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War  during  the  Rebellion, 
had  a  fine  memory.  One  evening,  in  the  early  part  of 
1868,  Dickens,  then  on  a  reading  tour  in  this  country, 
was  dining  with  Charles  Sumner,  Stanton  being  present. 
To  the  surprise  of  Dickens,  Mr.  Stanton  was  able  to 
repeat  from  memory  a  chapter  from  any  of  the  novel- 
ist's works.  Mr.  Stanton  explained  that  during  the  war 
he  had  formed  the  habit  of  invariably  reading  some- 
thing by  the  author  of  "Pickwick"  before  going  to  bed. 

Cyrus,  it  is  said,  knew  the  name  of  every  soldier  in 
his  army.  Otho,  the  Roman  Emperor,  owed,  in  a  great 
measure,  his  accession  to  the  Empire  to  his  prodigious 
memory.  He  had  learned  the  name  of  every  soldier  of 
his  army,  when  he  was  their  companion  as  a  simple 
officer,  and  used  to  call  every  one  by  his  proper  name. 
The  soldiers  being  flattered  by  such  attention,  persuaded 
themselves  that  such  an  emperor  could  not  forget  in 
his  favors  those  whose  names  he  so  well  remembered. 
They  all,  therefore,  declared  for  him  and  enabled  him 
to  overthrow  his  rival. 

Richard  Porson,  professor  in  the  University  of  Cam- 

95 


bridge,  was  alike  distinguished  for  his  learning  and  his 
memory.  He  had  the  Greek  authors,  book,  chapter, 
verse  and  line  at  the  tip  of  his  tongue.  When  a  lad  at 
Eton,  as  he  was  going  to  his  Latin  lesson,  one  of  the 
boys,  wishing  to  play  him  a  trick,  took  his  latin  Horace, 
from  him,  and  slipped  into  his  hand  some  English  book. 
Porson,  however,  who  had  learned  Horace  by  heart  be- 
fore he  went  to  Eton,  was  nothing  disconcerted  at  the 
trick,  but  when  called  upon  to  begin,  opened  the  Eng- 
lish book  which  had  been  placed  in  his  hand,  and  with- 
out hesitation  commenced,  and  went  on  regularly,  con- 
struing the  Latin  into  English  with  the  greatest  ease. 
The  tutor,  perceiving  some  signs  of  amusement  and 
mirth  among  the  boys,  and,  suspecting  there  was  some- 
thing uncommon  in  the  affair,  asked  Porson  what  edi- 
tion of  Horace  he  had  in  his  hand.  "I  learned  the  les- 
son from  the  Delphin  edition,"  replied  the  pupil,  avoid- 
ing a  direct  reply.  "That  is  very  odd,"  said  the  master, 
"for  you  seem  to  be  reading  on  a  different  page  from 
myself.  Let  me  see  the  book."  The  truth,  of  course, 
came  out,  and  the  master  said  he  would  be  happy  to 
find  other  pupils  acquitting  themselves  as  well  under 
similar  circumstances. 

Mezzofanti  is  said  to  have  known  seventy  different 
languages  and  dialects,  and  upon  one  occasion  to  have 
succeeded,  after  twenty-four  hours*  study,  in  readily 
conversing  in  a  language  which  before  was  entirely  un- 
known to  him,  and  which  seemed  totally  different  from 
all  he  knew.  An  old  beggar  of  Stirling,  some  years  ago, 
yclept  Blind  Aleck,  knew  the  whole  of  the  Bible  by 
heart,  so  that  he  could  give  verse,  chapter  and  book 
for  any  quotation,  or  vice  versa,  correctly  give  the 
language  of  any  given  verse. 

Wesley  tells  us  in  his  Journal  of  a  young  Irish  preach- 
er who  had  such  a  knowledge  of  the  Greek  Testament 
and  such  powers  of  memory,  that,  on  the  mention  of 
any  word  from  the  Greek  text,  he  would  at  once  tell 
you  all  the  various  passages  in  which  the  word  occurred, 
and  the  different  shades  of  meaning  in  each.  Charles 
Dickens,  it  is  said,  could,  after  passing  down  a  street 
for  the  first  time,  tell  you  the  names  of  the  shop- 
keepers in  order,  and  the  kind  of  business  in  which 
each  was  engaged. 

96 


In  former  times  men  looked  upon  memory  as  a 
purely  intellectual  activity,  having  little  relation  to 
bodily  conditions.  Today,  through  the  fuller  study  of 
the  brain  and  nervous  system  in  their  relations  to 
mental  phenomena,  the  tendency  among  a  large  class 
of  writers  is  to  consider  memory  a  department  of  phy- 
siology. The  intimate  relations  between  the  growth 
and  development  of  memory  and  the  cultivation  of  the 
organs  of  sense,  is  now  admitted  by  all.  If,  as  Sir  Wm. 
Hamilton  holds,  the  soul  feels  at  the  finger  tips,  and  if, 
as  most  eminent  physiologists  now  believe,  the  whole 
body  is  the  organ  of  the  mind,  there  seems  good  reason 
for  accepting  Kay's  doctrine,  that  memory  has  its  seat, 
not  only  in  the  brain,  but  also  in  the  organs  of  sense 
and  in  the  muscles. 

It  is  known  today  that  no  mental  activity  takes  place 
without  a  corresponding  and  definite  change  in  the 
bodily  structure.  Not  only  is  this  the  case  in  regard 
fo  sensation  and  perception,  but  also  in  recollection, 
imagination  and  fantasy.  A  change  of  brain  structure 
accompanies  every  thought,  and  it  is  now  asserted  that 
in  recalling  any  idea  that  has  come  to  us  through  the 
senses,  we  use  the  senses  again  and  in  much  the  same 
way  as  when  first  we  received  the  idea.  Wundt  ob- 
serves that  nerve  action  is  the  same  in  sense  perception 
and  in  memory. 

Prof.  Bain  declares  that,  "the  organ  of  the  mind  is 
not  the  brain  by  itself,  it  is  the  brain,  nerves,  muscles, 
organs  of  sense,  viscera,"  and  if  every  sensation  and 
thought  leaves  permanent  traces  in  our  physical  struc- 
ture, it  naturally  follows  that  memory  is  closely  allied 
with  the  education  of  our  senses  and  the  training  of 
our  bodily  powers.  Memory  writes  its  record,  not  alone 
upon  the  brain,  but  upon  the  organs  of  sense,  the 
nerves,  the  muscles  and  the  entire  body.  From  this 
fact  it  may  be  inferred  that  the  record  of  all  our  past 
lives  may  be  found  in  our  bodies.  A  man  becomes  a 
part  of  all  he  has  seen  and  heard  and  thought  about. 
The  record  of  every  man's  life  is  in  every  man's  body. 
Memory  is  in  this  sense  eternal.  Nothing  we  have  ever 
heard,  or  known,  or  felt,  is  ever  lost.  We  carry  its 
trace  within  us.  It  is  true  we  may  not  be  able  to  recall 

97 


all  of  our  experiences  and  bring  them  again  into  con- 
sciousness, but  the  consciousness,  as  we  shall  see  a  little 
further  on,  is  but  a  small  part  of  our  mental  life.  If 
we  "feel  at  the  finger  tips,"  it  is  quite  evident  we  re- 
member at  the  finger  tips  as  well,  and  very  much  of 
the  musician's  memory  is  in  the  muscles  of  the  hand 
and  arm.  Memory  is,  therefore,  not  one  faculty,  but  a 
condition  of  activity  of  all  the  faculties. 

The  fact  that  memory  very  largely  depends  on  phy- 
sical conditions  has  been  noted  from  the  earliest  times. 
The  memory  is  more  active  in  health  than  in  sickness, 
in  vigor  and  strength  than  it  is  in  physical  weakness. 
Memory  is  more  active  and  reliable  in  the  morning  than 
in  the  evening,  because  the  physical  nature  is  then  re- 
created by  sleep  and  rest.  "Fatigue  in  any  form,"  says 
Herbert  Spencer,  "is  fatal  to  memory." 

Not  only  is  this  the  case,  but  it  is  also  an  admitted 
fact  that  our  physical  condition,  when  we  receive  an 
impression  through  the  senses,  very  largely  determines 
the  depth  and  permanence  of  the  impression  itself.  If 
the  powers  of  the  body  are  fresh  and  vigorous,  the 
senses  active,  the  attention  fixed,  the  impression  is 
deep  and  lasting — and  every  one  knows  how  faint  the 
impression  upon  the  mind  when  the  body  is  wearied, 
the  senses  dull  and  the  attention  wandering.  Ribot  de- 
clares that  "the  reproduction  of  impressions  depends  in 
a  general  way  upon  the  circulation,"  and  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  character  of  the  impression,  as  well 
as  its  recall  to  consciousness,  depends  on  the  condition 
and  circulation  of  the  blood,  in  short,  upon  the  state  of 
health. 

According  to  Ribot,  memory  includes  three  things, 
viz.:  the  retention  of  certain  states;  their  reproduction, 
their  localization  in  the  past.  The  first  two  are  indis- 
pensable; the  third,  what  we  call  recollection,  and  which 
he  calls  localization  in  time,  is  purely  psychological.  It 
is  the  element  which  constitutes  perfect  memory,  yet 
it  is  the  unstable  element,  and  may  be  regarded  as  an 
added  element  to  memory  proper.  "Do  away  with  the 
first  two  and  memory  is  abolished;  suppress  the  third, 
and  memory  ceases  to  exist  for  itself,  without  ceasing 
to  exist  in  itself." 


Muscle  fibre,  which  at  first  responds  feebly  to  the 
excitation  transmitted  by  a  motor  nerve,  responds  more 
energetically  the  more  frequently  it  is  excited,  pauses 
and  rests  being  presupposed.  The  most  highly  devel- 
oped tissue  of  the  body,  nerve  tissue,  presents  in  the 
highest  degree  the  two-fold  property  of  retention  and 
reproduction  of  past  states.  This  furnishes,  in  some 
degree,  a  type  of  organic  memory,  yet  not  the  true 
type  which  is  to  be  found  in  the  secondary  automatic 
actions  as  opposed  to  the  primary  or  innate  automatic 
acts.  These  secondary  automatic  actions  are  the  very 
groundwork  of  our  daily  life — our  acquired  movements, 
such  as  walking,  writing,  the  acquired  movements  of 
the  laborer  and  mechanic.  Acts  which  now  seem  to  us 
entirely  natural  were  acquired  by  laborious  effort. 
Lewes  observes  that  when  a  child  is  learning  to  write 
he  cannot  move  the  hand  by  itself,  but  must  also  move 
the  tongue,  the  muscles  of  the  face,  and  sometimes  the 
feet.  In  time  by  practice  he  can  suppress  all  these  use- 
less motions,  and  write  while  he  consciously  gives  at- 
tention to  other  matters. 

Dr.  Carpenter  mentions  the  case  of  an  accomplished 
pianist  who  executed  a  piece  of  music  while  asleep — a 
feat  which  must  be  attributed  largely  to  the  muscular 
sense  which  possessed  the  memory  of  the  succession  of 
movements.  Consciousness  here,  as  in  other  recorded 
cases,  dropped  out  of  the  activity,  showing  that  in  the 
mechanism  of  memory  it  is,  in  a  sense,  a  superadded 
element. 

It  is  of  the  first  importance  to  the  student  who  would 
strengthen  his  power  of  recollection  that  he  should  gain 
clear  ideas  of  the  mental  operations  involved  therein, 
and  of  the  laws  which  govern  memory.  In  place  of  a 
single  mental  operation  memory  involves  several,  and 
what  is  ordinarily  called  memory  is  but  the  final  stage 
of  a  process  which  implies:  1.  Acquisition  of  the  orig- 
inal idea  or  state.  2.  Retention.  3.  Reproduction. 
4.  Recognition — or  what  some  have  called  localization 
in  time.  To  the  subject  of  the  acquisition  of  ideas  and 
the  importance  of  employing  the  right  methods  we  shall 
devote  a  special  chapter,  in  which  it  will  be  seen  that 
this  has  a  most  important  bearing  upon  the  retention 

99 


and  reproduction  of  our  ideas.  In  regard  to  retention 
of  ideas  it  is  sufficient  here  to  state  that  the  consensus 
of  opinions  among  metaphysicians  is  strongly  in  favor 
of  the  view  that  no  idea  or  mental  impression  once  re- 
ceived is  ever  lost — though  many  of  them  pass  beyond 
the  power  of  voluntary  recall. 

RULES  FOR  STRENGTHENING  THE  MEMORY 

1.  Seek  and  preserve  vigorous  health  as  a  funda- 
mental condition  of  a  good  memory. 

2.  Train  the  senses  to  careful  observation  and  ac- 
curate discrimination. 

3.  Deepen  and  intensify  your  first   impressions   of 
what  you  would  memorize,    (a)    by   concentrating  the 
thought  upon  it,  (b)  by  exercising  the  will  power  in  re- 
gard to  it,  (c)  by  allowing  the  object  or  thought  to  re- 
main for  a  sufficient  length  of  time  before  the  mental 
vision. 

4.  Test  your  memory  to  determine  whether  you  com- 
mit more  easily  by  sight  or  sound,  also  to  find  which 
you  retain  more  firmly,  the  images  of  sight  or  the  sound 
images. 

5.  Select  for  memorizing  purposes  some  book  of  the 
Bible  or  some  poem  of  English  literature,  and  assign 
yourself  a  limited  number  of  verses  for  daily  memoriz- 
ing at  a  selected  hour  of  the  morning. 

6.  Preserve  the  period  religiously  for  the  two-fold 
purpose  of  committing  the  daily  portions  (3  to  5  verses), 
and  reviewing  the  lessons  previously  committed. 

7.  In  committing  to  memory  and  in  reviewing,  use 
those  senses  by  which  you  have  found  the  mind  works 
most  effectively  in  these  processes. 

8.  Make  it  a  rule  to  thoroughly  comprehend  every 
idea  or  fact  you  would  commit  to  the  memory. 

9.  Do  not  burden  memory  with  useless  tasks,  or  with 
too  much  at  a  time,  depending  for  growth  and  enlarge- 
ment on  the  regularity  and  suitability  of  the  exercise, 
rather  than  its  difficulty. 

10.  Do  not  attempt  to  force  the  memory  to  recall  an 

100 


idea.  If  memory  can  recall  an  idea  at  all,  it  can  gener- 
ally do  so  easily.  Many  a  person  has  lost  entirely  an 
idea,  which  he  might  have  recalled  by  easy  suggestion 
to  his  memory,  by  "cudgelling"  his  brains  for  it. 

11.  Repeatedly  recall  the  mental  images  to  conscious- 
ness, and  make  them  as  vivid  as  possible.    Catch  the  dim 
pictures,  and  hold  them  in  the  mind's  vision  until  they 
become  clearer.     Visualize  these  mental  pictures,   and 
make  them  so  distinct  that  those  senses  through  which 
they  were  received  shall  be  called  into  a  measure  of 
activity  again. 

12.  Trust  your  memory:  do  not  treat  it  with  sus- 
picion.   The  unconscious  powers  of  the  mind  work  large- 
ly upon  suggestion  and  a  suggestion  of  memory  failure 
to  one's  self  is  often  a  procuring  cause  of  failure. 

13.  Form  the  habit  of  mentally  recalling  in  detail 
every  evening  your  experiences  during  the  day. 

14.  Form  the  habit  of  relating  to  your  friends  as 
fully  as  possible  and  in  order  the  incidents  of  your  trav- 
els, accounts  of  concerts,  lectures  and  entertainments 
attended. 

15.  Form  the  habit  of  writing  out  weekly  from  mem- 
ory a  summary  of  the  minister's  sermon,  taking  care  to 
include  the  argument  and  main  points. 

16.  Form  exercises  for  yourself  in  overcoming  your 
special  memory  difficulties,  practising  the  recall  of  those 
classes  of  ideas  over  which  the  mind  seems  to  have  least 
control.     If   your   memory    of   names,    faces    or   dates 
should  be  defective,  assign  a  period  every  morning  to 
exercising  the  memory  along  these  lines. 


101 


REASON 


100        PAGE        QUARTERLY 


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Seton,  Dr.  Edward  B.  Warman, 
Dr.  J.  M.  Peebles,  Daniel  Hull, 
Cora  L.  V.  Richmond,  Dr.  Little- 
field,  Prof.  Edgar  Lucien  Larkin, 
Lillian  Whiting,  and  Dr.  B.  F.  Austin 

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